UFC set to make history Saturday with loaded T-Mobile event

UFC 324 at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night ushers in a new era for the Las Vegas-based mixed martial arts company and for combat sports in general.

It could also be a changing of the guard in the lightweight division.

Paddy Pimblett is on the verge of superstardom and can solidify the hype by winning the interim lightweight belt in the main event.

All he has to do is beat one of the most accomplished and popular fighters the division has ever known in Justin Gaethje.

“I’ve been speaking being a world champion into existence since I was 15,” Pimblett said during the buildup to the fight. “So there’s no way it’s not happening. I’m bringing that belt back to Liverpool.

“Whether I have to go halfway to Hell and halfway to death to take it home with me, I will.”

The main card starts at a new time of 6 p.m. with Paramount+ going live at 2 p.m. with the early preliminary card.

Gaethje believes his experience in the spotlight of major fights will help him stop Pimblett’s 7-0 run in the UFC that has not included a main event appearance.

“You don’t know what you don’t know and he hasn’t been there,” Gaethje said. “I’ve been scheduled at least 20 times for five-round fights, so it’s definitely different training, different mindset, different tactics when you’re fighting.

“I want to take him to the fourth and fifth rounds. I want to do the same thing, turn his face into minced meat. I’ve done it before, done it to higher-caliber fighters, but this guy has a lot of momentum right now, a lot of confidence, and those are some of the most dangerous variables that I will be facing when I step in there.”

New era

The pair will headline what figures to be a historic event. It’s the first card on the UFC’s new deal with Paramount+, which essentially puts an end to the pay-per-view era.

All cards, including premium numbered events like Saturday’s, will stream to subscribers of the platform. It’s a massive $7.7 billion deal over seven years that helps usher the organization into yet another stratosphere as it continues its meteoric rise as a sports entity.

Yet the launch hasn’t been seamless.

Gaethje and UFC president Dana White traded comments in the media about how fighter pay would be impacted by the influx of cash and the elimination of pay-per-view bonuses popular fighters like Gaethje would typically enjoy. White has said the fighters will be taken care of proportionally, but Gaethje said this week he had not been informed of any additional revenue streams or how that would work.

White was asked about Gaethje’s comments during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show.”

“We completely have it dialed in,” White said. “We’ve got really smart kids, they can get down to within single digits on how close it would be to pay them like it was pay-per-view.

“Without getting into all that stuff, Gaethje was offered more money, and Gaethje never responded.”

The card has also lost a couple fights, including what could have been one of the biggest female bouts in years.

Amanda Nunes was scheduled to come out of retirement. She was going to challenge women’s bantamweight champion and two-time Olympic judo gold medalist Kayla Harrison, but Harrison underwent neck surgery during training and had to withdraw.

Another fight was lost after a terrifying incident on Friday at weigh-ins. Bantamweight Cameron Smotherman stepped off the scale after cutting to 135.5 pounds and started to stumble as he walked off stage before collapsing face-first.

His bout against Ricky Turcios was canceled.

Stacked card

Still, the historic event has plenty of appeal.

The winner of the main event is likely next in line to unify the belt against champion Ilia Topuria.

Bantamweight star Sean O’Malley will take on Song Yadong in a pivotal match in the division, while a women’s flyweight bout between Natalia Silva and former champ Rose Namajunas figures to also have massive title implications.

Then there is heavyweight Derrick Lewis, a living knockout reel, taking on Waldo Cortes Acosta.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on X.