Last week, the UFC announced it’s first two Paramount cards which will go down on January 24th and January 31st. The promotion is coming out swinging with two straight numbered cards which will collectively feature three title fights.
UFC 324 is the first card and it will be headlined by an interim title fight between Justin Gaethje (26-5) and Paddy Pimblett (23-3). The co-main event of that card will be women’s bantamweight champion and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist Kayla Harrison (19-1) defending her title against arguably the greatest of all time in former two-division champion Amanda Nunes (23-5).
One week later, UFC 325 goes down in Australia and that card will be headlined by featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski (27-4) taking on Diego Lopes (27-7) in a rematch. All three of these matchups are tremendous fights, but if you ask me and the general public, only one of these fights is based on merit.
The matchup between Harrison and Nunes is clearly the two best fighters in the world fighting for the bantamweight title. However, the interim lightweight title fight is not featuring the most worthy contenders. You can make the argument that neither of the participants is in the top two in terms of worthy contenders.
The UFC’s top lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan is not part of the fight despite clearly being the number one contender in the division. Justin Gaethje was knocked out cold by Max Holloway last year and while Holloway is ranked ahead of both Gaethje and Pimblett at 155, he’s not part of the title fight either.
The Problem with UFC 324 and UFC 325
It’s very evident to me that the plan was for Ilia Topuria to face Paddy Pimblett for the lightweight title in January. With Topuria dealing with issues outside the octagon, the decision was made to put Pimblett in an interim title fight. I have no problem with putting Pimblett in that spot.
I have a problem with leaving Tsarukyan out of that spot. I get that the fight was likely booked before Tsarukyan took no damage while running through Dan Hooker just a little over a week ago, but he’s ready and willing to fight in January and he deserves that spot.
Justin Gaethje threatened the UFC that he would retire without getting a title shot. Gaethje did the promotion a favor by putting his title shot aside to fight Max Holloway at UFC 300. He got dominated and knocked out in that fight. While he did have a bounce back win against Rafael Fiziev, he’s not really a worthy contender to be fighting for the title.
Let me be clear, I love the fight between Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett. In fact, I think it’s the fight to make. I just don’t like the fact that it’s for the interim title when neither man really deserves that spot if we are basing things on merit.
Speaking of merit, the biggest travesty in terms of the announcements last week was the featherweight announcement. I’m stunned out of my mind that Diego Lopes is getting a rematch with Alexander Volkanovski.
After Ilia Topuria vacated the featherweight title to move up to lightweight, Volkanovski and Lopes fought in April for the vacant belt. Outside of a brief moment where Lopes scored a flash knockdown near the end of a round, the fight was not close. It was all Volkanovski and had he not been dropped that one time, he would’ve won 50-45.
Not the fight at all that would warrant an immediate rematch. Since that fight, we haven’t seen Volkanovski while Lopes headlined Noche UFC against Jean Silva. Lopes won by stopping Silva after an incredible back-and-forth fight. Diego Lopes personifies entertainment and that’s why he’s getting the title shot.
He does not at all deserve to be fighting for the featherweight title again right now. You have undefeated contenders Lerone Murphy and Movsar Evloev at the top of the division waiting for their opportunity. You also have former bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling at the top of the division who is more worthy than Lopes.
However, the UFC put aside merit with this fight and went with what will be entertaining.
Entertainment over Merit
It’s clear to me that the UFC wants to start their deal with Paramount with pure entertainment. Paddy Pimblett and Justin Gaethje are massive fan-favorites. Diego Lopes is one of the most entertaining fighters in the sport regardless of weight class.
Even if the first fight with Volkanovski wasn’t close, Lopes is going to make this rematch entertaining. There has been concern from fighters and pundits that the UFC will shy away from making the best fight the best and focus more on pure entertainment now that they are with Paramount.
However, I don’t think anyone should be concerned long-term. I don’t agree with the matchups either, but I understand what they are going for. I think it will be a problem if this becomes the way they do business moving forward. That said, I think this more has to do with putting out the most entertaining product possible with a new audience.
Once the UFC settles in, I think you’ll see them go back to their traditional ways of booking. However, there will be a lot of eye balls surrounding this first half of 2026 and if they continue down the path of entertainment over merit, the critics are going to become louder and louder.
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