When Conor McGregor made his Octagon debut back in early 2013, a sensational first-round finish over featherweight bruiser Marcus Brimage, the first thing “Notorious” did was trash the top names in his division, taking shots at “old” Cub Swanson and “pea-head” Dustin Poirier, among others.
Sounds like Paddy Pimblett was taking notes.
The 26 year-old “Baddy” ripped into some of the most celebrated personalities in UFC, including bantamweight striking sensation Sean O’Malley. While they are currently separated by two weight classes — thus ruling out the chance to throw down — Pimblett didn’t mince words when it came to “Sugar’s” scouting report.
“He’s a bit of a bitch ass,” Pimblett told MMA On Point. “Hurts his ankle and blames his loss on that. He’s a little pothead. O’Malley’s stoned half the time. He’s got good strikes, he’s got good stand up, but as soon as he gets in there with a decent grappler he’s gonna get beat. I like people who interact with the fans, without fans we wouldn’t be where we are now. The fact that he does makes me like him.”
O’Malley (14-1) earned a UFC contract with a thunderous knockout on Dana White’s “Contender Series” back in summer 2017 then put together a 6-1 run over the next four years. That said, “Sugar” continues to get mocked for his Marlon Vera loss and critics like Pimblett believe the bantamweight banger is still deficient on the ground.
“I didn’t know he was talking shit about me,” O’Malley said on his podcast. “That’s not nice. I wonder why people just assume I have bad grappling. It’s just weird that people assume because I’m a good striker that I must be a bad grappler. Maybe he just knows … talk bad about me, it’s publicity. He obviously knows what he’s doing as far as marketing himself.”
Pimblett (17-3) won his Octagon debut by smashing Luigi Vendramini at UFC Vegas 36 last weekend in “Sin City.” No word yet on when the Liverpool native is expected to make his way back to the cage, but “The Baddy” is likely to spend the next year or so recycling 155-pound cans until the promotion is ready to make its return to the UK.