Paddy Pimblett is finally over his insane weight gains between fight camps.
The rising Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Lightweight prospect, Pimblett, has made a name for himself inside the Octagon with four entertaining showings thus far (20-3 overall). Liverpool, England’s favorite fighting son has also become popular on the streets for eating whatever his heart desires, exceeding 200 pounds regularly.
Going forward, “The Baddy” aims to put his offseason Light Heavyweight days behind him before he hopes to break into the 155-pound top 15.
“I am hoping to have another three fights and three wins in the bag by the end of next year and be ranked,” Pimblett told Sloth Boxx. “But as I say, we’ll see what happens, people keep asking me, ‘Are you fighting?’ because I’m not that fat at the minute. They say, ‘You must have a fight coming up you lad because you’re normally well fatter than this’. I’m like ‘Nah lad, I’m just not that fat at the minute.’
“People keep saying to me, ‘lad, you’re not that heavy you must have a fight coming up,’” he continued. “I haven’t. At the minute I’m not too bad because obviously I had surgery. I went to America and got fat again, then came back and had surgery. And after the surgery, my weight has just gradually come down. Now I’m just walking around at about 84-85 kilos (185 pounds) and not really watching what I’m eating, I’m just hobbling around at that weight, which is nice. It plateaued around this weight, which is nice. Hopefully, I’ll never go above 90 kilos (198 pounds) again.”
Pimblett’s weight gains have been a massive cause for concern amongst the mixed martial arts (MMA) community as well as UFC President, Dana White. While Pimblett has never missed weight since joining the promotion, his long-term health is where a lot of the worry stems, according to other athletes and fighters.
Currently recovering from foot surgery after earning a unanimous decision win over Jared Gordon at UFC 282 in Dec. 2022, Pimblett couldn’t be less bothered by the noise that’s followed his weight over the past so many years.
“It goes in one ear and out the other they can all f—k off,” Pimblett said. “They can say what they want about me, I’m the one, as they say, putting my life on the line and getting in the cage. People on the outside, they don’t see what we have to do to make weight. I’ve said it before, I actually am going to try and keep my weight down. I’ve never actually tried to do it before. I’ve just ballooned up after every fight and eaten 8000 calories a day. Now I probably won’t do that, it’s mad that people keep asking me, ‘Who are you fighting and who do you want when you come back?’ I don’t know, I’m not coming back for six months, and as you know the amount of change that can happen in six months in fighting, it’s ridiculous. S—t happens in this sport, you can’t predict.”