Gaethje rips up script to kick off new UFC TV era

Reuters

Justin Gaethje rolled back the years to beat Paddy Pimblett and claim the interim UFC lightweight title as the flagship organisation in mixed martial arts kicked off a new era in the first event of its new TV broadcast deal with Paramount in Las Vegas on Saturday.

Faced with a dangerous opponent six years younger than him, the 37-year-old American seized the moment, punishing Pimblett over five rounds and setting up a showdown with champion Ilia Topuria that may take place on the White House lawn.

“The White House is in June. I represent this country, I represented it tonight," Gaethje told reporters after securing the interim belt for the second time. "There's no way they're keeping me off that card unless I'm dead."

The Americans' victory over the charismatic, teak-tough Englishman Pimblett was the perfect start for Paramount's deal with the UFC, which came into effect on January 1st and is worth a reported $7.7 billion (€8.8 billion) over seven years.

Under the terms of the deal, Paramount will make 13 UFC numbered events, which are usually headlined by title fights, and 30 other cards per year available to subscribers to their streaming platform. Some cards will be shown free to air on the CBS network.

It is a marked change for the UFC, which went from struggling to find broadcast partners in the sport's infancy to becoming a pay-per-view behemoth in the North American market, with cards featuring title fights almost always on pay-per-view in recent years.

UFC President Dana White has been instrumental in the journey of mixed martial arts from the fringes to the mainstream, and at the post-fight press conference on Saturday, he said that the first Paramount show had been a huge success.

"We'll have numbers on Tuesday or Wednesday, but this exceeded expectations beyond belief for Paramount, so we know it killed it - we just don't know the exact number yet, but they're saying it exceeded by, like, double," White said.

Fighter pay is always a bone of contention in the UFC, and there have been rumblings of discontent from fighters who previously would have received a share of the pay-per-view revenues about the new broadcast deal.

However, discretionary bonuses were doubled, and headliners Gaethje and Pimblett each received $100,000 as a "Fight of the Night" award.

"We've got a real good feeling that this is going to be a great relationship for the next seven years," White said.