UFC lightweight Paddy Pimblett was all set to the be the promotion’s next major star when an injury (and a lackluster performance) sidelined the Liverpool native. Now, Pimblett is targeting a return to the Octagon later this year, and is taking his career more seriously than ever.
Chief among his priorities is avoiding absurd weight gain between fights: Pimblett used to gain over fifty pounds between bouts, but promised his fans on SLOTHBOXX that those days are behind him.
Paddy Pimblett Pledges To Keep Weight Off Between UFC Fights
“I’m hoping to have another three fights in the bag by [the end of 2024], another three wins and be ranked. But as I say, we’ll see what happens. People keep asking me, ‘Are you fighting?’ because I’m not that fat at the minute. It’s like, ‘You must have a fight coming up, you lad, you’re normally well fatter than this.’
It’s like, ‘Nah, lad. I’m just not that fat at the minute.’ But that’s what a lot of people keep saying to me, ‘Lad, you’re not that heavy. You must have a fight coming up.’ No, I haven’t.
As I’ve said before, I think I’ve just got an eating disorder when I’m fighting, when I’m cutting weight and dieting, then after a fight, I’ve got a bad eating disorder. At the minute, I’m not too bad because obviously I had surgery.
I went to America and got fat again, then came back and had surgery, and after the surgery, my weight has just gradually come down. Now I’m just walking around at about [185 to 187 pounds] and I’m not really watching what I eat or nothing.
I’m just hobbling around at that weight, which is nice. I’ve plateaued now finally around this weight, so hopefully I’ll never go above [198 pounds] again.”
Pimblett’s charisma and perfect 4-0 UFC record have made him a rising star with the promotion. His last fight, however, was a controversial decision win over Jared Gordon, which saw Pimblett far from his best.
Predictably, the ever fickle fans online blasted Pimblett after the fight for gaining so much weight between camps and delivering an underwhelming performance.
Pimblett isn’t worried about the haters, who can “all f*ck off”. “It goes in one ear and out the other. They can all f*ck off.
I really don’t care, lad. People can say what they want about me. I’m the one, as people say, putting my life on the line and getting in the cage. So people on the outside, they don’t see what we have to do to make weight.
But as I’ve said before, I actually am going to try and keep my weight down now, so we’ll see what happened. I’ve never actually tried to do it before.
After every fight, I’ve just ballooned up and started eating like 8,000 calories a day. Now I probably won’t do that.”
