Paddy Pimblett is the real deal.
‘The Baddy’ delivered perhaps his most impressive performance inside the Octagon, smashing his way through former Bellator champion Michael Chandler in the UFC 314 co-main event on Saturday night. Pimblett ultimately finished ‘Iron’ with a barrage of ground-and-pound strikes in the third round, moving him to a perfect 7-0 under the UFC banner and putting him potentially one win away from a title opportunity.
Immediately following the festivities inside the Kaseya Center in Miami, White dubbed Pimblett the “real deal” and confirmed that a big-name opponent is in the Liverpudlian’s future.
“Paddy Pimblett showed tonight that he is the real deal,” White said at the UFC 314 post-fight press conference. Beating Michael Chandler and beating him the way that he did—I don’t know how you can doubt the kid anymore. It seems likely that his next fight will be against a big-name opponent, probably one that puts him into title contention.”
Does Paddy Pimblett’s path to a title shot run through Arman Tsarukyan?
Speaking with Joe Rogan inside the Octagon, Pimblett called for a clash with someone of the lightweight division’s top dogs, including Dustin Poirier, Charles Oliveira, Justin Gaethje, and Arman Tsarukyan. However, it was Tsarukyan who got most of Pimblett’s post-fight attention.
“F*ck Arman,” he told Joe Rogan after naming him as a potential opponent for his next fight. “He’s a little helmet, f*ck that sausage.”
With Poirier rumored to face Max Holloway in his UFC swan song this summer and Islam Makhachev lobbying for his next lightweight title defense to be against Gaethje, Pimblett’s road to his first shot at UFC gold may go through Arman Tsarukyan.
