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Following his big win at the UFC’s recent Fight Night show in London, Paddy Pimblett is undoubtedly one of the hottest fighters on the planet, with his meteoric rise being compared to the rise of Conor McGregor a few years ago.
While there are definitely some parallels between the rise of Paddy Pimblett and the rise of Conor McGregor, the truth is that, right now, ‘The Baddy’ is incomparable to ‘The Notorious’.
Pimblett may well go onto capture gold inside the octagon in the future and emulate the success of the Irishman. However, right now, if you look beyond the hype, comparing the two is largely unfair.
With that in mind, here are five reasons why the rise of Paddy Pimblett is incomparable to the rise of Conor McGregor.
#5. Unlike Conor McGregor’s victories, Paddy Pimblett’s wins have not been flawless
When looking back at the rise of Conor McGregor, many observers would naturally point to his charisma and skills on the microphone as the keys to his stardom. However, all of the charisma in the world wouldn’t have meant a lot had the Irishman not been able to fight.
Of course, that wasn’t the case. It was quickly evident that ‘The Notorious’ had absolutely phenomenal skills inside the octagon to go along with his big mouth and boastful ways.
McGregor’s first two bouts in the UFC saw him breeze past Marcus Brimage and Max Holloway. After returning from a serious knee injury, he easily dealt with Diego Brandao, Dustin Poirier and Dennis Siver, too.
Even top contender Chad Mendes and then-featherweight champ Jose Aldo couldn’t touch the Irishman. It wasn’t until his first fight with Nate Diaz three years into his UFC career that anyone really tested McGregor.
In contrast, Paddy Pimblett’s first two wins have not been flawless by any means. While he finished both Luigi Vendramini and Kazula Vargas in the first round, he was also tagged by the strikes of both men and certainly didn’t seem invulnerable.
So while Pimblett’s charisma and microphone skills are similar to those displayed by McGregor in his early days, it was also clear that the Irishman had something special in the octagon, something that ‘The Baddy’ has yet to really show, despite his two victories.
#4. Paddy Pimblett is fighting in a far more loaded division than Conor McGregor was
While it’s hard to talk down Conor McGregor’s wins over the likes of Dustin Poirier and Chad Mendes, a common criticism of his rise to the top was that the UFC rushed him to a title shot against Jose Aldo.
However, the truth is that at the time that ‘The Notorious’ climbed to the top, the featherweight division wasn’t really the most loaded that the promotion had to offer.
At the time of his fights with them, while Poirier and Dennis Siver were both highly-ranked fighters, it’s probably fair to say that neither man was genuinely at the elite level. ‘The Diamond’ hadn’t reached his prime, while Siver was largely a tough gatekeeper at best.
Despite this, it wasn’t like McGregor leapfrogged any obvious contenders to get his shots at Mendes and then Aldo. The fact that he fought them so quickly into his UFC tenure was more a mark of how thin the division was at the time.
Paddy Pimblett, by contrast, is clearly fighting in one of the UFC’s most loaded divisions, the lightweight class.
Not only is the top 10 of the division full of killers, but there are a seemingly endless number of incredibly talented fighters competing at 155 pounds, meaning that ‘The Baddy’ will probably have his hands full with whoever he’s matched with.
That means that there won’t be any shortcuts for him to climb to the top of the division in as rapid a time as McGregor did, even if he fights almost as well as the Irishman. In turn, that renders any comparison to their respective rises pointless.
#3. Paddy Pimblett may not have an entire country behind him
One of the most unique aspects about Conor McGregor's rise was the fact that, unlike many prospects in the UFC at the time, ‘The Notorious’ essentially had the entire country of Ireland behind him.
McGregor essentially labeled himself the ‘King of Dublin’ after his first bout with the promotion. By the time he fought Max Holloway in his second octagon appearance, not only was the Irish-American population of Boston fully behind him, but it felt like thousands of traveling fans from his home country were, too.
Part of this was obviously due to McGregor’s natural charisma, but it was also largely down to the fact that, at the time, Ireland had never had a major UFC star before.
The same cannot be said for the UK, Paddy Pimblett’s home country. Not only has the country already produced superstars like Michael Bisping and Dan Hardy, but countless other UK-based athletes have entered the octagon and done well for themselves.
Sure, there’s nothing to suggest that ‘The Baddy’ can’t get the whole of the UK behind him. He was certainly popular when the UFC visited London earlier this month. However, equally, the UK is a strangely tribal country in many ways.
Pimblett, who is a proud native of Liverpool and openly supports Liverpool FC, may not garner the same kind of love from fans in Manchester, for instance, or parts of London. In fact, this may partly explain why Darren Till, another Liverpool-based fighter, was never quite able to catch on in the same way that Bisping did.
Unlike McGregor, then, ‘The Baddy’ is not a unique, original superstar looking to lead a country to success in the UFC, meaning that attempting to compare the two is tricky.
#2. Unlike Conor McGregor, Paddy Pimblett is not demanding title shots right away
When Conor McGregor first arrived in the UFC back in 2013, while he faced a lower-level opponent in his debut, journeyman Marcus Brimage, it didn’t take long for ‘The Notorious’ to make his overall intentions clear.
From the off, McGregor wasted no time in suggesting that he was in the UFC to claim gold, namely the featherweight title then held by Jose Aldo. Were it not for a knee injury suffered in his second octagon appearance, the UFC may well have pushed him into a title bout much sooner than they did.
Sure, observers could claim that the promotion were behind McGregor’s huge push, recognizing the burgeoning popularity of the Irishman and looking to capitalize on it. However, ‘The Notorious’ certainly went along with it.
In contrast, Paddy Pimblett has already stated that he’s got no interest in chasing UFC gold just yet and doesn’t even want to face a ranked opponent until he’s moved up the promotion’s pay scale somewhat.
That approach does make sense, as ‘The Baddy’ clearly wants to maximize his pay before really risking his record against a higher-level opponent. However, it’s completely different to the approach McGregor took. The Irishman clearly didn’t mind fighting for less money early on, as he knew the big money would lie somewhere down the line if he could keep winning.
So, with such a contrast in attitudes, it’s hard to compare Pimblett’s rise to the meteoric rise of McGregor.
#1. Conor McGregor made a much quicker step up in competition
Given that Paddy Pimblett has already stated that he doesn’t really want to face a step up in competition until he steps up the UFC’s pay scale, it could be a while until we see him face any highly-rated opponents.
Right now, ‘The Baddy’ is reportedly still making the UFC’s entry base pay, meaning he made just $24k to fight both Luigi Vendramini and Kazula Vargas, ignoring the $50k bonus he made for the latter bout.
Pimblett has stated that he’d love to renegotiate his current deal to make more money, but has also claimed that he’ll need to win “another four fights” before he faces a ranked opponent in the lightweight division.
Conor McGregor, on the other hand, wasted absolutely no time in stepping up the ladder and facing elite-level opponents.
‘The Notorious’ faced Marcus Brimage in his octagon debut and it’s probably fair to suggest that ‘The Bama Beast’ was on a similar level to Vendramini in terms of a debut opponent. However, after that, things quickly escalated for the Irishman.
Max Holloway wasn’t the force of nature he is today, but he still had three UFC wins to his name when he faced McGregor in the Irishman’s second bout. For his third and fourth fights, ‘The Notorious’ fought a TUF champion in Diego Brandao and a top 10-ranked opponent in Dustin Poirier.
Essentially, even if you consider the stacked nature of the lightweight division, it seems nearly impossible that Pimblett will face anyone close to the level of where Poirier was in 2014 in his fourth UFC bout.
So, while his rise thus far has been a fast one, it’s very unlikely that his trajectory will ever be able to be compared to that of ‘The Notorious’.
