UFC 324 on January 24th of next year will mark the beginning of the Paramount+ era in the United States, and it will come with a new start time that is now confirmed to be permanent.

UFC 324, headlined by an interim lightweight title fight between Justin Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett, will air at 9pm ET (2am UK), an hour earlier than the 10pm ET start time that’s been standard for the UFC’s pay-per-view events over the years.

However, with the PPV model now being scrapped in the United States in favor of just a standard Paramount+ subscription, there’s now more flexibility to bring forward the start time, meaning fans in the region won’t have to stay up quite so late to see the headlining fight.

There will still be some numbered events overseas that would still have a different start time though, such as potential European shows or those in Abu Dhabi for instance, which typically air in much earlier time slots.

Meanwhile, it’s still unclear if this new start time for numbered events will have any bearing on when the numerous ‘Fight Night’ events throughout the year will air.

Fight Night events have traditionally had more varied start times, with shows held at the UFC’s own Apex facility in particular often airing at the earlier time of 7pm ET (12am UK), while events on the road generally start at 10pm ET.

So far there’s been no announcements regarding UFC Fight Night shows in 2026 to help clarify the expected time-slots, but that may well change very soon as the promotion is planning a seasonal press conference on Friday to announce some of the big fights they have coming up in the early months of next year.