The UFC's New 'Cash Cow'? Paddy Pimblett Has Stardom in His Sights

It’s already become a familiar routine.

A fight is waved off. An interview commences.

And Paddy Pimblett dives headlong into a fiery, English-accented rant whose gist is that he’ll soon be the UFC’s biggest star and that the company’s long-term veterans will be calling him for career-defining fights.

It’s hardly the first time the Octagon has seen such brashness.

But, Pimblett insists, the thing that sets him apart from other big talkers is what happens when the lights go down and the camera turns away.

Absolutely nothing.

Because the “Paddy the Baddy” thing is authentic, not a manufactured gimmick.

“I hate people who are like that. I hate people who put on an act for the cameras,” Pimblett told Bleacher Report. “I pride myself on the fact that I’ll never do that.

“It’s not a persona. That’s what I do anyway. I put on good fights. I don’t feel pressure to perform or do something memorable so people will talk about me.

“People mention the word pressure and I laugh because they don’t know what they’re talking about.”

It’s not the only time that people have read him wrong.

Now 27, Pimblett was born in the Liverpool suburb of Huyton and began mixed martial arts as a teen after watching the Rich Franklin-Vitor Belfort main event atop UFC 103 in 2009.

He had his first pro MMA fight in late 2012 and has since progressed to a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, giving him ample street cred as a genuine badass.

But even these days, he said, the baby face and mop-top hairdo still yield the occasional potshot.

“I’m just different than everybody else. I don’t look like a fighter. I look like a scrawny little kid,” he said. “A lot of people have been underestimating me for years and I’ve been proving people wrong since day one. I love proving people wrong. It makes my life fun.”

The looks are miles apart and the accents are audibly different.

But if the "loudmouth from an island in the North Atlantic" thing seems familiar, it should.

Pimblett is at least partially following a trail blazed by Conor McGregor, who emerged from Ireland and arrived in the UFC in 2013 with a “not here to take part, here to take over” mindset.

Both McGregor and Pimblett fought for featherweight and lightweight titles in the London-based Cage Warriors promotion before making the trip to the United States, and McGregor was in a Fight Night main event in his third octagonal appearance. Pimblett has finished his first two UFC fights—one by KO, one by submission—in a combined eight minutes, 18 seconds.

And after the first win, against Luigi Vendramini last September, they sounded an awful lot alike.

"What did I tell you, Mike?" Pimblett reminded interviewer Michael Bisping in the cage.

"Me and you would be having this conversation after a first-round finish. ... I'm here to take over, lad. I'm the new cash cow. ... People are going to be calling me out.”

He’ll make appearance No. 3 this weekend at the O2 Arena in London against Jordan Leavitt, four months after commentators labeled him “the complete package” thanks to his work in the cage during and on the microphone after a rear-naked chokeout of Rodrigo Vargas.

So, as far he’s concerned, the McGregor comparisons are just fine.

“I don’t mind. It’s very flattering,” Pimblett said. “Obviously. I’m not gonna be him. I’m not Conor McGregor. I’m Paddy the Baddy. I’m Paddy Pimblett. No one’s ever seen anything like me before because I’m me. Just like no one had ever seen nothing like Conor McGregor before.”

McGregor was on the main card at UFC 178 in his fourth fight with the company in September 2014, headlined at UFC 189 the following summer and won his first championship with an unforgettable 13-second blowout of featherweight king Jose Aldo at UFC 194.

Pimblett, though, doesn’t feel compelled to match the “Notorious” timeline.

Assuming all goes well this weekend, he’s figuring one more fight before the end of 2022 and another one early next year before he gets married in May to longtime girlfriend Laura Gregory.

Beyond that, he’s OK with being patient and saving the callouts for others.

“Come the summertime, I’m just putting my feet up,” he said. “I’m in no rush at all. Everyone else is in a rush to do that. I’m not. I’ll get paid and I’ll take care of my business nice and slowly.

“I’m gonna let it happen naturally. I don’t need to rush. I don’t need to mention anyone’s name. Because people mention my name.”

When it comes to Leavitt, that's already been done.

The fellow 27-year-old has been in the UFC for four fights since a successful appearance on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2020, winning three times—most recently by split decision over Trey Ogden in April—against foes with an aggregate octagonal record of 13-13.

And based on remarks at a recent pre-event media day, he’s not impressed by Pimblett.

“I don’t really see him as a star,” Leavitt said.

“He’s just a guy that’s [unbeaten] in the UFC, and he fought some guys that had losing records [2-4 combined] in the UFC. There are plenty of guys on the roster like that.”

The Pimblett-Leavitt fight will go off as the fourth contest on a six-fight main card from London, atop a preliminary show with eight additional bouts. Pimblett, heavyweight main eventer Tom Aspinall and flyweight Molly McCann are the three England-based fighters on the main portion.

But if you think that concerns The Baddy, think again.

He’ll spend the hours between now and Friday’s weigh-in getting down to 156 pounds before relaxing and replenishing with a good meal.

At no point, however, will the schedule include excess concern.

“You could say that I’ll be thinking about the fight. But I don’t overthink it. You know what I mean?” he said. “I always say there’s no point in being nervous when you know you’re going to win, so I don’t feel nervous. I let the coaches do it.

"I never watched his fights until this fight with him got announced.

“I don’t rate him at all. He’s got no power. On the floor his grappling’s OK. Wherever the fight goes I’m gonna beat him up. He’ll have to worry about me.”