Paddy Pimblett is back in camp and preparing for his next fight, with lessons learned from his last loss to Justin Gaethje still stuck in his mind.
Pimblett lost a decision to Gaethje at UFC 324 back in January. It was an exciting fight, and part of that had to do with both fighters just brawling through the rounds. Pimblett is a submission specialist, but he barely even attempted to take Gaethje down. Now Gaethje is moving on to face Ilia Topuria for the lightweight belt at the UFC’s big White House
event in June, leaving Paddy to rebuild towards a title shot.
“So to be honest, with the last fight, I think a little bit of me ego got in the way” Pimblett said in a new YouTube video. “I wanted to knock him out. I wanted to strike with him and show everyone I could strike with him. When you’re trying to take him down in the fifth round after he bludgeoned you at the end of the second, it’s quite hard. Back to fight IQ. Back to the game plan and not just swinging recklessly.”
The path back starts at UFC 329 in July, where the worst kept secret in MMA is that Pimblett will face Benoit Saint-Denis at the International Fight Week card. Paddy’s now back in camp after doing his typical in-between fight weight gain, and the struggle is real … real good?
“Body’s feeling it, as it will be the first few weeks back,” he said. “I had a perfect camp for the last fight, and that never went perfect in the cage. So I think I’m better off having a little bit of a mad disruptive fight camp, and I have my best fights. Bobby Green and Michael Chandler, both fight camps weren’t perfect, but in the end they were perfect when I got in the Octagon. So hopefully this is the same.”
“I gotta show everyone why I deserve to get that title shot. Show everyone that I’m gonna be getting another one in the near future.”
The path to the lightweight belt will never be as clear as it was at the start of 2024 when Ilia Topuria was out dealing with a contentious divorce and Arman Tsarukyan was (is) in the doghouse for all his various shenanigans. On the plus side, Topuria is clearly looking to take a side-quest up to welterweight to fight Islam Makhachev. But Tsarukyan is quickly becoming undeniable, and then you’ve got beasts like Charles Oliveira and Max Holloway laying in weight above Saint-Denis and Pimblett, who hold the No. 5 and No. 6 rankings respectively.
A win over Saint-Denis — which is by no means certain — puts Paddy back in the top five shark tank. Things only get harder from there, but the popular Scouser is ever-confident he can prove his doubters wrong.
