Becoming a father has changed Paddy Pimblett’s career perspective.
Making his promotional debut in 2022, ‘The Baddy’ became an instant hit with fans for his contagious charisma and highlight-reel finishes. In the years since, Pimblett has bagged six straight wins inside the Octagon and is mere hours away from the toughest test of his career when he meets former Bellator champion ‘Iron’ Michael Chandler at UFC 313 this Saturday night in Miami.
With a win over Chandler, Pimblett will skyrocket himself into the lightweight top 10 and potentially one big win away from his first shot at UFC gold. But the Liverpudlian isn’t fighting for just fame, fortune, and world titles anymore.
Paddy Pimblett discusses his journey into fatherhood
Around this same time last year, Pimblett became a father after his wife Laura gave birth to twin baby girls.
“It’s changed my life in every single way possible, to be honest,” Pimblett said on UFC 314 Embedded while talking about becoming a father. “I’m up early every day; I’ve got to put these kids to bed every night. To be fair, Laura does most of it—she picks up a lot of the slack. It makes me train harder, you know what I mean? When you feel like you want to quit, you just think of these kids because I’m putting food on the table for them.”
“I used to take a lot of stuff for granted; I used to rely on my talent. But as the saying goes, ‘Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.’ That’s why people have seen a lot of improvements with me.”
Dating back to his days competing under the Cage Warriors banner, Pimblett has won his last eight straight fights with all but two of them ending inside the distance. In his most recent outing, he put King Green to sleep via a slick triangle choke in the opening round of their UFC 304 clash in Manchester.
Before that, ‘The Baddy’ bested former interim lightweight champion Tony Ferguson.
