Islam Makhachev, Dustin Poirier and other UFC stars give their Justin Gaethje vs Paddy Pimblett predictions

With Justin Gaethje vs Paddy Pimblett being the first main event of the year, several stars have shared their opinions on the fight.

This coming Saturday, the premier MMA promotion lands in Las Vegas for their first event of the year with UFC 324 headlined by an interim lightweight title fight between Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett.

With it being such a high profile fight, when it was announced by UFC boss Dana White it received a lot of criticism, with a large portion of the fanbase claiming that neither fighter is deserving of a title shot.

‘The Baddy’ is coming into what is guaranteed to be the toughest test of his career thus far having not scored a win over any fighter currently ranked inside the top 10 of the lightweight division.

Islam Makhachev, Dustin Poirier and others provide their predictions

The UFC 324 main event is extremely high profile not only because it could determine who will take on Ilia Topuria next, but also because it is the first main event of the new deal with Paramount.

And with that, several current UFC stars have been sharing their predictions for the fight which almost guarantees fireworks.

The former king of the division, Islam Makhachev picked Gaethje to beat ‘The Baddy’ in their highly-anticipated clash, when he was asked about it by Match Boets.

The Russian has previously been linked to fight both Gaethje and Pimblett when he was still in the lightweight division.

In fact, Pimblett threatened Makhachev calling him a ‘little bum’ after Makhachev criticised the Brit, stating that he’s not a ‘real challenge’ for the current lightweight champion, Topuria.

Recently retired lightweight star Dustin Poirier also provided his prediction for the fight, picking ‘The Highlight’ to hand Pimblett his first loss in the UFC.

“It’s a fun fight, I’m leaning towards Justin, but we’ll see,” he told The Ariel Helwani show.

“I just think Justin has been in those 25-minute fights, he’s been in dog fights before, I think Paddy’s gonna have a tough time stopping him on the feet and I don’t think Paddy’s gonna be able to get him down so he’s gonna have to fight with him.

“Justin is a bigger puncher and he’ll put himself in harms way to land one of them shots, it’s tough to stay away from him for 25 minutes.”

Other UFC stars predict the UFC 324 main event

Other fighters to share their predictions for the UFC 324 main event include Dan Hooker, Belal Muhammad, and Colby Covington.

“If I was able to bet on fighting, this seems like a smash bot on Gaethje because everybody is on Paddy but I think Justin is still a tough dog… I think he’s gonna put Paddy to the test,” Covington told Submission Radio.

“No (I don’t agree with Paddy being the favorite), Gaethje’s takedown defense is pretty sharp, I don’t see him (taking Gaethje down). We haven’t seen Paddy get in there that often and mix it up with the best guys in their prime,” Hooker also said in an interview with Submission Radio.

“My pick, I think I’m going to go with Justin. I think Paddy just gets hit a lot on the feet… I think I’m going to pick Justin in this one,” the former welterweight champion Muhammad said on his breakdown on his YouTube Channel.