UFC 324’s main event delivered with Justin Gaethje snapping Paddy Pimblett‘s unbeaten record in the promotion. It is often said that it takes a village to build a fighter. As the night ended with Gaethje’s victory, it was clear this win was not modeled by one man standing alone. Gaethje’s decade-old coach, Trevor Whittman, was not the only one who had a part in it; an unlikely presence quietly left his mark.

Gaethje revealed during his post-fight interview that Faraz Ziam was alongside him throughout his entire camp. Ziam, primarily a kickboxer, competes in the UFC’s lightweight division. Reports suggest Ziam and Kamaru Usman were Gaethje’s most crucial training partners. Both helped him prepare for the bout against Paddy Pimblett.

Justin Gaethje uses UFC 324 spotlight to praise Faraz Ziam’s rise

Justin Gaethje was asked for predictions by the interviewer during his post-fight interview about BSD [Benoit Saint-Denis] and Dan Hooker for the French Audience. He immediately turned the spotlight to Faraz Ziam, saying, “I had Faraz Ziam working with me this whole camp, and he’ll be fighting these guys very soon. He’s very skilled, very hungry, and he was with me for six weeks — the whole camp. Seven weeks, six or seven weeks. He wouldn’t take my money. Paid for everything himself. What an amazing dude. And yeah, he’ll be there soon.”

Gaethje brought up Ziam the moment he was asked a France-related question; it showed how Ziam has left an impression on Gaethje. Reportedly, Ziam trained with Gaethje for more than a month and was extremely skilled at mimicking different kinds of fighters, giving Gaethje an edge and high-level competition to prepare for his fight. Smile Killer is currently on a six-fight win streak in the UFC. His recent win came against Nazim Sadykhov via TKO.

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Humility has long defined Gaethje, even at the peak of his career. The 37-year-old sure knows how to give credit where it’s due. Ziam may still be building his name, but Gaethje made sure the MMA world heard it loud and clear. If the French lightweight is truly on the rise, the interim champion may have just been the first to call it.

With that said, ‘The Highlight’ overcame the odds and shut his critics, who kept pointing out his age and grappling skills, with a victory at UFC 324. Justin Gaethje also gave Paddy Pimblett a reality check in the UFC 324 main event.

Justin Gaethje gives his thoughts on Paddy Pimblett’s trash talk

Paddy’s pre-fight banter included something like “He won’t be physically the same after this fight, I will,” and the tables turned and how! He scored two knockdowns and bloodied “The Baddy” and earned an unanimous decision victory to set up a unification bout with Ilia Topuria later this year. In a post-fight interview, Gaethje gave some advice to Pimblett.

“That was his only choice, and I knew he wasn’t going to quit. He’s not a quitter, and I’ve never seen him quit. I’ve never seen him give up, and luckily, I found some success early. I knew I would have to steal some momentum, and he was very confident. The moment I stepped in there, he didn’t take his eyes off me,” Gaethje said.

“I loved teaching him a lesson. He said my face was not going to look the same after the fight, and his was going to look the same. As soon as it was over, I was like, ‘Look at your face, motherf*cker. It does not look the same.’ He’s going to learn from this. You cannot have that mentality when you come in there. He needs to accept the worst possible outcome, and that’s how you perform the best, when the pressure is highest. I learned that early.”

Gaethje was the betting underdog against Pimblett, and that made him more determined to get the win! He is sure that his being an underdog against Topuria is going to give him that edge once more. He sure thrives off that!