UFC CEO Dana White used the Thanksgiving Day CBS broadcast of the Dallas Cowboys vs. Kansas City Chiefs NFL game to announce several high-profile fights that’ll kick off the fight promotion’s new year under the media rights agreement with Paramount.
The first UFC event under the new partnership, UFC 324: Gaethje vs. Pimblett, takes place on Jan. 24 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The fight card is headlined by an interim lightweight title bout between former interim titleholder and No. 4 ranked contender Justin Gaethje and No. 5 ranked Paddy Pimblett.
Nearly as soon as the interim title bout was announced it began receiving criticism. Former UFC bantamweight champion Aljamain Sterling was one who voiced his disapproval of the matchup.
“We have a little bit of a debacle happening for these title shots. Dana announced some big fights, some big fights that were very, very confusing. Fun fights nonetheless, but very, very confusing,” Sterling said on his YouTube channel.
“Let’s start with the obvious. The No. 1 (lightweight) contender, Arman Tsarukyan, he was supposed to fight Islam Makhachev. Got hurt, and understandably pulled out and had some repercussions from the UFC brass, which I understand. But the guy made up for it.
“He weighed in as a backup fighter, which sucks. Yeah, they pay you, but it sucks. You have to weight, not even knowing if you’re going to actually fight,” continued Sterling. “He did that, backup fighter, didn’t get the call, but may wait and show the UFC he’s a company guy, he’s going to do what he can to maker things right. Then he goes on and he fights again, defends his No. 1 spot, beats Dan Hooker and gets a finish.”
Related: Ilia Topuria taking extended break, interim title created
We don’t definitively know what took place behind the scenes, but Sterling doesn’t believe Tsarukyan would have turned down an interim title fight against either Gaethje or Pimblett. It appears the top contender was passed over.
“I’m sure if he (Tsarukyan) had the opportunity to fight for the interim title between Paddy Pimblett or Justin Gaethje, he would have done it unless we’re all completely mistaken and he said, ‘No. I only want to fight for the title or that’s it, and that’s against Ilia,'” said Sterling.
“I think Arman would have taken the fight. That’s just what I would think. It’s not too bad of a turnaround. And on top of that, he just won. Got a finish. Didn’t take a lot of damage. I don’t know how hard the training camp was, but didn’t take a lot of damage. It just sucks to see that,” added the former champion.
After the interim title bout was announced, Tsarukyan had a four-word response. “Make it make sense,” he wrote on X.
