With Ilia Topuria announcing today that he’s not going to compete in the first quarter of 2026, UFC President Dana White made a special appearance on the CBS broadcast of Kansas City at Dallas to announce that Justin ‘The Highlight’ Gaethje has been booked to face Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett for the interim lightweight belt on Jan. 24 in the UFC 324 headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

White revealed that the winner of Gaethje-Pimblett will take on Topuria for the undisputed championship.

UFC 324 will be the first of 13 numbered events in 2026 that’ll be on Paramount+.

Topuria broke his news with a post on his X account (formerly Twitter). Ilia said, “I won’t be fighting in the first quarter of next year. I’m going through a difficult moment in my personal life. I want to focus on my children and resolve this situation as soon as possible. I don’t want to hold up the division. The UFC will make the matchups needed, and as soon as the matters are resolved I’ll let the UFC know I’m ready to begin my return.”

FanDuel has Pimblett installed as a -230 favorite vs. Gaethje, who is a +176 underdog.

The 37-year-old Gaethje (26-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) has won three of his last four fights, including a pair of decision wins over Rafael Fiziev and a second-round KO win over Dustin Poirier. Both of his scraps with Fiziev earned Fight of the Night honors along with his lone defeat to Max Holloway by fifth-round KO at UFC 300.

Gaethje garnered a Performance of the Night bonus in his win over Poirier. He’s participated in nine battles that were issued Fight of the Night honors, the third-most in UFC history.

Gaethje has five career POTN bonuses. He owns the most Post-Fight bonuses-per-bout in UFC history (14 in 14 bouts) among fighters with at least four UFC appearances. Gaethje is also the only fighter in UFC annals to receive a Post-Fight bonus in each of his first seven Octagon appearances.

Gaethje won the lightweight division’s interim title back on May 9 of 2020 when he ended Tony Ferguson’s 12-fight winning streak with a fifth-round KO win at UFC 249. He faced Khabib Nurmagomedov to unify the belts at UFC 254 in Abu Dhabi.

Nurmagomedov submitted Gaethje via triangle choke in Round 2 before announcing his retirement. After a bounce-back win over Michael Chandler in another FOTN, he was given another title shot for the vacant belt against Charles ‘Do Bronx’ Oliveira.

Gaethje floored Oliveira with punches multiple times and had him bloodied up in the first 90 seconds of the fight at UFC 274 in May of 2022. In both instances, though, he chose to let the Brazilian get up rather than follow him to the ground out of respect for his BJJ skills.

Oliveira eventually dropped Gaethje and did follow him to the canvas, where he submitted him with a rear-naked choke in the opening frame.

Gaethje owns other notable career wins over Michael Johnson, Edson Barboza, James Vick and Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone.

The 30-year-old Pimblett (23-3 MMA, 7-0 UFC) is off a dominant win over Chandler at UFC 314 in April. The Liverpool, England, product finished Chandler via third-round KO (elbows and punches) and earned a POTN bonus.

Pimblett owns five career POTN bonuses, earning them in finishes vs. Luigi Vendramini, Rodrigo Vargas, Jordan Leavitt and King Green. He owns other notable scalps over Jared Gordon and Ferguson.

In the UFC 324 co-main event, Amanda Nunes (23-5 MMA, 16-2 UFC) is returning from retirement to take on the new women’s bantamweight champion, Kayla Harrison.

The 35-year-old Harrison (19-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) won the belt by submitting Julianna Pena with a kimura in Round 2 at UFC 316.

Nunes went into retirement after collecting a unanimous-decision win over Irene Aldana at UFC 289 on June 20 of 2023. She posted a 14-1 record in her last 15 fights while going from women’s bantamweight to featherweight to defend both of her belts.

FanDuel has Harrison as a -180 ‘chalk’ vs Nunes, who is a +140 underdog.

There are other banger bouts on the UFC 324 card, including a bantamweight tilt between former champion ‘Suga’ Sean O’Malley and Song Yadong, a heavyweight bout between Derrick ‘The Black Beast’ Lewis and Waldo Cortes Acosta, a bantamweight scrap between Umar Nurmagomedov and former flyweight kingpin Deiveson Figueiredo and a featherweight matchup between Arnold Allen and Jean Silva.