Din Thomas: Justin Gaethje is Paddy Pimblett's best chance at UFC belt

If Paddy Pimblett is ever going to touch a piece of UFC gold, Din Thomas thinks it will have to happen at UFC 324.

With Ilia Topuria taking a hiatus to tend to personal matters, the promotion is introducing an interim lightweight championship in the Jan. 24 headliner at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (Paramount+), where Pimblett will take on Justin Gaethje to decide who faces Topuria in his return.

The decision to put Pimblett (23-3 MMA, 7-0 UFC) into the slot with Gaethje (26-5 MMA, 9-5 UFC) has been particularly polarizing with the MMA community, because despite his name value and following, "The Baddy" does not have any top five wins on his resume. He would likely be the underdog to the highest-ranked names at 155 pounds in Topuria, Arman Tsarukyan and Max Holloway, but against Gaethje, he has opened at the betting favorite.

For UFC analyst and commentator Thomas, this is Pimblett's biggest opportunity to get possession of any form of a UFC title, because the other matchups are not favorable.

"No doubt about it – of all the fighters, this is going to be his best chance," Thomas told MMA Junkie. "There is some truth in that Justin, we know that he's in the twilight of his career. He's trying to get that belt. He wants the undisputed belt. He wants the legitimate belt. This is his chance to do that. For Paddy, I can't imagine him being able to things with Arman Tsarukyan or Ilia Topuria.

"If he's going to fight anybody, it's going to have to be the older guy in Justin Gaethje. Arman Tsarukyan is a young stallion who is trending upward. Same with Ilia Topuria. Justin Gaethje is at the twilight, trying to solidify his legacy. He's Paddy's best chance at winning a title."

Having a "best chance" and actually succeeding in it are two different stories, though, and Thomas isn't as high on Pimblett as the oddsmakers going into UFC 324.

In fact, he thinks this is a brutal clash of styles for Pimblett against Gaethje, who is one of the most brutal and entertaining fighters the sport has ever seen. Pimblett will have no choice but to engage at some point over the 25 minutes, Thomas said, and its there where he imagines things getting ugly for the Scouser.

"I'm leaning toward Gaethje for sure," Thomas said. "Absolutely. Gaethje is still a banger. Paddy is crafty, Paddy is really crafty and he's shown that he can withstand certain things and he can hang around with certain guys, but I just think when Justin Gaethje gets rolling downhill, and the amount of violence he's able to put on people, you can try to be as crafty as you possible can with Gaethje, but eventually he's going to catch up to you and you've got to stand up and fight him. Max Holloway was able to do that. When he sat down on his punches we saw what happened.

"I'm not sure Paddy Pimblett has the ability to do that and I'm pretty sure Paddy Pimblett can't take Gaethje down. I'm leaning toward Gaethje, in fact, pretty heavily actually. ... It's going to face Paddy to make some mistakes and I'm not sure he's going to be able to take the amount of punishment that Justin Gaethje's able to dish out."

This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Din Thomas; UFC 324 is Paddy Pimblett's 'best chance' at a title