Paddy Pimblett might be one of the fastest rising stars on the entire UFC roster, but perhaps his biggest detriment thus far has been how much weight he gains between fights.
While competing as a lightweight, the 27-year-old fighter from England has openly admitted to issues with how much size he adds after he competes, including a recent appearance on Steve-O’s podcast where he hit the scale at 206. 6 pounds, 50 higher than the limit for his division.
Pimblett has gone as far as saying he may have developed an eating disorder due to the extreme nature of weight cutting in MMA, though to date he’s still made the lightweight limit for each of his fights in the UFC.
UFC Welterweight Matt Brown thinks Pimblett’s weight struggles could be his greatest roadblock in his quest to advance his career. This is especially true as Pimblett continues to face tougher and more difficult competition within the octagon.
“The biggest thing, the X-factor that we haven’t really talked about is Paddy’s weight problems when he’s not in camp,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. He’s glorifying pizza, cheeseburgers, and s ***.. We’ve seen the pictures. I’ve seen the pictures. He is ridiculously large. That shows me that most of his [training] camp is really fat camp.
” You can’t do that, even in the UFC. It’s impossible to live this way. It’s a fight against killers who train year-round, stay on their weight and are always ready to go. Paddy .”
is making a terrible move here.
Because Pimblett is known to gain weight in between fights, it’s likely that he will spend a lot of time losing those extra pounds while he tries to reach his lightweight limit. Even if he looks healthy on the scale, Brown said that doesn’t negate the fact that Pimblett likely isn’t matching the work rate for other top ranked lightweighs, which means he might hit his competitive ceiling sooner rather than later.
“He might make weight easy,” Brown said. It might not be difficult to lose weight. Maybe he didn’t have to spend his whole camp in fat camp or whatever, but you can see right through it and see all the discipline issues that come along with that. There’s no way he’s in there training his balls off everyday.
“He’s not in there pushing himself everyday. He is not constantly pushing himself to improve, testing his limits. You’re not evolving. You’re not getting better everyday. Other guys are. So every time they’re getting one-percent better, that’s another day you’re falling behind.”
When it comes to his performances, Pimblett has gone 3-0 so far in his UFC career with all three fights ending by way of knockout or submission. He’ll attempt to get a fourth win on Saturday when he faces Jared Gordon in the co-main event at UFC 282.
Despite the fact that he hasn’t had enough weight from Pimblett, Brown is still not convinced that he can see a potential contender in the lightweight division. But he hopes to see new wrinkles in his arsenal in the fight with Gordon.
” I haven’t been impressed by his abilities inside the cage to be truthful,” Brown stated. Brown said, “Again, i really like him, I’m no way putting him down, but I haven’t been too impressed with his performance.” He has very few paths to victory. There is only one way to win. Jared is going in prepared and will be able nullify this, I believe.
“Jared Gordon is the right fighter for him. He’s now at a point in his career where he can be trusted and I believe he will give it a test. If he’s not right on point, Jared’s going to beat him. He will be looking for either a submission or takedown. Jared Gordon is not a confident opponent so I believe it will be a good test .”
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There have been many comparisons between Conor McGregor and Pimblett since he joined the UFC roster. Pimblett even suggested to McGregor that his next fight would be the “biggest pay-per view that UFC has seen .”
This prediction may come to pass if Pimblett continues to rise in star power, but Brown quickly discredits the claims.
“He’s nothing like Conor,” Brown said. I can’t imagine anyone would believe that. I haven’t seen him trash talk at all. Conor’s confidence and insane trash talk was what we liked about him.
“Paddy is just an excellent talker. He’s just a funny guy, relatable that’s just entertaining to watch. Conor was an entirely different person, and he is still my favorite. I love Conor personally.”
Source: https://www.mmafighting.com/2022/12/10/23500994/matt-brown-concerned-paddy-pimblett-lack-of-discipline-most-of-his-training-camp-is-really-fat-camp?rand=96749
