Paddy Pimblett might be one of the fastest rising stars on the entire UFC roster, but perhaps his biggest detriment thus far has been how much weight he gains between fights.
While competing as a lightweight, the 27-year-old fighter from England has openly admitted to issues with how much size he adds after he competes, including a recent appearance on Steve-O’s podcast where he hit the scale at 206.6 pounds, 50 higher than the limit for his division.
Pimblett has gone as far as saying he may have developed an eating disorder due to the extreme nature of weight cutting in MMA, though to date he’s still made the lightweight limit for each of his fights in the UFC.
UFC welterweight Matt Brown believes Pimblett’s struggles with his weight could ultimately serve as his biggest roadblock to advancing further in his career, especially as he continues facing tougher and tougher competition inside the octagon.
“The biggest thing, the X-factor that we haven’t really talked about is Paddy’s weight problems when he’s not in camp,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “He’s sitting there glorifying eating pizza and cheeseburgers and s***. We’ve seen the pictures. He gets ridiculously big, and that shows me a lack of discipline. That shows me that most of his [training] camp is really fat camp.
“You can’t live that way, especially in the UFC. You can’t live that way. You’re fighting killers that are training year round, staying on weight, staying ready. You’re fighting f****** lions here, and I think that’s a very, very bad move by Paddy.”
Because Pimblett gains so much weight between fights, he’s likely spending a big part of his training camp shedding those pounds as he prepares to get back down to the lightweight limit. Even if he looks healthy on the scale, Brown said that doesn’t negate the fact that Pimblett likely isn’t matching the work rate for other top ranked lightweighs, which means he might hit his competitive ceiling sooner rather than later.
“He might make weight easy,” Brown said. “It might not even be a problem making weight. Maybe he didn’t have to spend his whole camp in fat camp or whatever, but you can see right through it and see all the discipline issues that come along with that. There’s no way he’s in there training his balls off everyday.
“He’s not in there pushing himself everyday. He’s not in there testing himself, evolving, that’s the big thing. You’re not evolving. You’re not getting better everyday. Other guys are. So every time they’re getting one-percent better, that’s another day you’re falling behind.”
When it comes to his performances, Pimblett has gone 3-0 so far in his UFC career with all three fights ending by way of knockout or submission. He’ll attempt to get a fourth win on Saturday when he faces Jared Gordon in the co-main event at UFC 282.
Taking the weight problems out of the equation, Brown still hasn’t seen enough from Pimblett at this stage in his career to believe he’s looking at a future contender in the lightweight division. But he hopes to see new wrinkles in his arsenal in the fight with Gordon.
“I have not been overly impressed with his skills inside the cage, to be honest,” Brown said. “Again, I really like the guy, I’m not putting him down in any way, but I haven’t been overly impressed with what he’s done. He has very few paths to victory. It’s a single path to victory really. I think Jared knows that, and I think he’s going to come in ready and be able to nullify that.
“Jared Gordon’s the right fight for him. That’s the point that he’s at in his career, and I think he’s going to give him a good test. If he’s not right on point, Jared’s going to beat him. His obvious path to victory is going to be takedown and look for a choke, or look for some sort of a submission. I’m not confident he can do that to Jared Gordon, so that’s why I think it’s a great test for him.”
Because Pimblett has been so charismatic and boisterous since joining the UFC roster combined with his growing fan support out of the U.K., there have been comparisons to Irish superstar Conor McGregor after he first arrived in the promotion. Pimblett has even suggested that a future fight with McGregor would be “the biggest pay-per-view that the UFC has ever seen.”
That prediction could potentially come true if Pimblett’s star power continues to grow, but Brown is quick to shut down the comparisons between the two fighters.
“He’s nothing like Conor,” Brown said. “I can’t believe anybody would say that. I haven’t seen him trash talk at all. That’s what we loved about Conor was his confidence and his insane trash talking.
“Paddy’s just a good talker, period. He’s just a funny guy, relatable that’s just entertaining to watch. Conor was a completely different level, still is. I love Conor personally.”
