UFC 324 Predictions (24-01-2026)

UFC 324: Gaethje vs. Pimblett is an upcoming mixed martial arts event produced by the Ultimate Fighting Championship that will take place on January 24, 2026, at the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada, part of the Las Vegas Valley, United States.

This event is expected to be the first UFC broadcast under the new media rights agreement with Paramount Skydance, following the conclusion of their deal with ESPN. The deal has already expanded to include Latin America and Australia, as all the events will be available to stream at no additional cost on Paramount+ (including numbered events), with select cards appearing on CBS.

It will also mark the first numbered event to not air on pay-per-view in the United States since UFC 267 in 2021.

An interim UFC Lightweight Championship bout between former interim champion (also former WSOF Lightweight Champion) Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett is expected to headline the event.

The main card will also feature former UFC Bantamweight Champion Sean O’Malley taking on Song Yadong.

3 ranked UFC Bantamweight ‘Sugar’ Sean O’Malley returns to the octagon after suffering 2 straight losses for the first time in his career. Back in September, 2024, the American failed to defend his belts against now former champion Merab Dvalishvili.

Sugar later got another shot against the Georgian, but failed in a decisive fashion and got finished. Merab’s wrestling and pressure-based fighting style was too much and now S.O’Malley finally has a chance to fight another decorated striker.

Sugar is now 10-3 in the UFC, winning 6 times via KO and 4 times via decision. He has a win over Petr Yan, who is currently the champion, which likely will grant him a great chance to get another title shot with a win over his opponent this weekend.

Song Yadong started his UFC career very early at the age of 20 and since then collected many spectacular victories. However, in 8 years with the organisation, he has never fought for the belts and came up short against the division elite.

The Chinese prodigy fought only once in 2024 in a bout versus Petr Yan. In a close fight, the Russian was awarded a unanimous 29-28 decision. S.Yadong failed to show activity in 2025 as well, with a single fight versus now recently retired Henry Cejudo which ended in the referee stopping the fight due to Cejudo’s eye problem.

Although O’Malley’s last win was back in March, 2024 we still view him as a favourite to win this bout. The American has a more impressive resume and beat several opponents who have wins over Song Yadong. Moreover, S.Yadong failed to beat top opposition and has a record of 0-2 versus top 5 fighters.

Justin The Highlight Gaethje is now on a mission to get his final shot at the lightweight belt before retiring. After a hard last second KO loss versus Max Holloway in 2024, the American took a longer break and returned as his old self in a fight versus Rafael Fiziev.

Many questioned whether Justin will be the same after such a hard knockout, but he has proved many doubters wrong, knocking Fiziev down once and eventually winning the fight via decision.

J.Gaethje won the interim belt versus Tony Ferguson, but was never a true lightweight UFC champion after failing to claim the gold from Khabib Nurmagomedov and later Charles Oliveira.

Now the division is in chaos as current champion Ilia Topuria announced that he is taking a year break due to personal reasons and J.Gaethje has another chance to get the belt.

Due to his mic skills, antics and strong UK fanbase, Paddy Pimblett quickly gained popularity and at the same time haters. However, the Baddy won all of his 7 UFC bouts, getting the finish 5 times. His recent win over Michael Chandler was arguably his best as he dominated from start to finish on the feet and on the ground eventually getting the late finish in the 3rd round.

Although on paper the Englishmen did beat notable names like Tony Ferguson, King Green and already mentioned Michael Chandler, all three of them are on decline and had long losing records.

The odds at sports bookmakers for Justin Gaethje are just disrespectful and too good for us to ignore. P. Pimblett has not faced anyone like Gaethje so far and now for the first time is fighting a top 5 ranked opponent.

Although this fight is hard to predict with both men containing a lot of power and being unpredictable, it is definitely worth a risk going with Justin Gaethje for this one and Paddy’s hype underrated Gaethje’s abilities.