Paddy Pimblett is going under the knife.
The highly touted prospect from England revealed in a video on his YouTube channel that he’s set to undergo ankle surgery in March to repair damage done from his most recent fight against Jared Gordon at UFC 282 this past December.
Pimblett stated in the video that his ankle injury likely occurred early in the fight following a leg kick that landed on Gordon’s shin.
“It looks like you have a small amount of cartilage lost in this bit,” Pimblett’s doctor told him while looking at an x-ray of his ankle. “That’s exactly where you’re sore.
“The other thing you’ve got is all this white stuff around here, that’s all fluid. So, that’s what the swelling is. When we look at the ligaments that join your fibula, so you’ve probably got what we call a grade 2 injury to that.”
Typically, a grade 2 injury to the ankle, which includes partial tearing of ligaments, doesn’t require surgery but rather rest and rehabilitation. Obviously, Pimblett’s doctor disagreed as the UFC lightweight continues to deal with swelling and soreness more than a month removed from his most recent fight.
That timeline will nix any hope that Pimblett could return as early as UFC 286, which is currently scheduled to take place in London on March 18.
Pimblett hasn’t made any other public statement regarding the surgery or how long it will take him to recover before booking his next fight.
The 28-year-old lightweight currently sports a 4-0 record in the UFC, which includes his controversial win over Gordon with many believing Pimblett should have left the cage with a loss on his record rather than a unanimous decision victory.