Paddy Pimblett is confident he would dethrone Islam Makhachev of his UFC lightweight title.
Pimblett is the No.14 ranked lightweight but believes he would beat the current King of his division in a bout.
‘The Baddy’ last fought for Dana White’s promotion in July at UFC 304, which was the first sporting event to take place in Manchester’s Co-Op Live arena.
It was here where Pimblett beat Bobby Green via first-round submission to extend his undefeated UFC record to six consecutive bouts.
But there was one important film released during his fight week that helped him get used to unusual late nights.
The Liverpool man has at least two or three more fights to go before he is awarded a UFC title shot, but remains confident he would beat the current champ.
“People always say do you think you’d beat Islam Makhachev and I’m like: ‘Obviously’,” Pimblett said on the StillTalkingShow.
“Do you think I’m going to sit here and go: ‘Ah, no, he’d beat me’. [If I said that] then I’m not a fighter. I’m a coward.”
Makhachev won the 155 lbs strap for the first time by submitting Charles Oliveira at UFC 280 two years ago.
He has since defended his belt twice against Alexander Volkanovski—a natural featherweight who went up a division and many suggested could’ve won the first fight—and Dustin Poirier most recently in July.
“I respect Islam, he’s a great champion,” Pimblett added. “People will probably laugh at me for saying this, but obviously I think I’d beat him.
“I don’t think any man on this planet would beat me if I got in a cage with them. I think I’d beat everyone.
“In my mind no [he wouldn’t stand a chance]. I always say, if you think anyone in your division, or anyone that you’re rivals with, anything like that, can beat you, you’re in the wrong sport.
“Go and do football or rugby or cricket or basketball or hockey, where you’ve got a team where you can say: ‘Oh it was his fault, it was her fault.’”
29-year-old Pimblett has shot to UFC stardom since making his debut in September 2021, after emerging through the ranks to become a champion in Irish-owned MMA promotion Cage Warriors.
He has been awarded Performance of the Night bonuses four times in White’s promotion and has notable wins over MMA veterans Tony Ferguson and Jared Gordon on his record.
Pimblett, along with thousands of UK UFC fans, weren’t best pleased with the schedule for his last appearance at UFC 304 in Manchester.
The main card didn’t start until 3am due to the UFC’s massive American audience and to maximise PPV sales, with the preliminary card only getting underway at 11pm.
This meant that UFC interim heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall didn’t make his octagon walk until after 5am for his co-main event victory over Curtis Blaydes.
Leon Edwards, who dropped his welterweight title to Belal Muhammad in the main event, had Aspinall to thank for knocking out Blaydes inside one minute, yet he still didn’t get started until close to 6am.
Birmingham’s Edwards looked a shadow of himself at UFC 304, and many—including Pimblett—cited the late schedule as one of the reasons why.
“That was the maddest one ever, I didn’t agree with it,” Pimblett said. “I’ve said it in interviews before, I didn’t agree with it.
“It thought it gave an advantage to the American fighters coming over, because we were fighting on their time scale.
“I reckon that could’ve affected Leon cause he didn’t look himself in it. A lot of other people tried to change the schedule.
“I didn’t change nothing. I just started doing a little sweat session, and getting in the sauna every other night [two weeks out from the fight].
“And then, on the week of the fight, when I got into the fighters’ hotel, I was just going to sleep later each night.
“The Wednesday night, Deadpool & Wolverine came out, so we went and watched that, and went to sleep at four in the morning, then woke up the next day at 11/12. That was the day I had to start my weight cut.”
White’s promotion announced in November that the UFC would return to the UK for a Fight Night event on March 22, 2025, at London’s O2 Arena.
Edwards teased his UFC return by sharing the announcement post with an eyes emoji, while Pimblett was called out by Brazil’s Renato Moicano.
Moicano is the No.10 ranked lightweight and has already called out Pimblett once before after beating up Benoit Saint Denis at a UFC Fight Night Paris event in September.
There is a high chance that Pimblett would accept a bout with Moicano and use it to get himself into the top 10 UFC ranked lightweights.
From there, he would only be one or two fights from earning himself a shot at Makhachev’s lightweight title.
