Paddy Pimblet dispelled all Dana White’s doubts about him.
Prior to signing with the UFC last year, Pimblett was one of the biggest MMA stars outside the organization and was often compared to one-time Cage Warriors featherweight champion Conor McGregor. After a successful debut in the UFC last September, Pimblett asked for a fight in England to prove his ability to “break the roof off the hook,” and Pimblett did just that, securing a first-round victory and sending UFC fans in London off in raucous excitement.
And now the president of the UFC no longer doubts Bad.
“This week I’m tired of hearing, ‘Oh, wait until you see him go, wait until you see this and that.’ I thought I wanted to see him fight. He needs a win, you know? White stated this at the UFC post-match press conference in London. “But he did it, and he did it spectacularly. And when he got into trouble, he came back, turned the fight around and won.
“To give you an example, on my Instagram yesterday I posted face-offs for a heavyweight fight. [Aspinall vs. Volkov]. Made 120,000 views. Paddy’s face-off netted 1.3 million. So all the talk about him going on strike and all that shit, look, it’s true. There’s a lot of hype behind this guy, and tonight he showed everyone that he’s the real deal.”
Pimblet definitely thinks he is. After his win, Pimblett said that he deserved to be in the main events and that he could easily sell out the show at the stadium.
White’s last point of interest was less, but he does believe that Pimblett is now a main event fighter.
“I don’t know. I mean, his numbers say yes. His numbers say yes. He could headline Fight Night,” White said.
“It’s just one of those things. …He’s like [Sean] O’Malley. O’Malley pulls big numbers. We had a couple of guys from the Contender Series who did great things. This is the best way to explain it. If you look at some of the guys coming out of the Contender Series and look at the numbers and see what they’re doing, you’ll see these guys either go straight to pay-per-view or we’ll top them or put them in strong positions at Fight Nights . Paddy is definitely one of those guys that could be.”