We have seen several UFC fighters evolve. Changing appearance is one of the distinct marks of growing up. As a young sport, MMA is becoming a career choice for more and more young athletes whose transformation becomes apparent through the years. Current lightweight champion Charles Oliveira was one of these men.
But this one evolution might catch you off guard.
Paddy Pimblett is a fresh new face in the UFC. The fighter is currently making his way into stardom. The scouser was a Cage Warriors featherweight champion prior to signing with the UFC. While Pimblett is well known in the UK – he’s still on the bare bones contract in the UFC – which some believe is a result of the corruption of his longtime manager Graham Boylan.
Sporting his trademark blonde hair and currently undefeated in his UFC run, Pimblett often makes headlines with his comments and his meme worthy appearance.
Pimblett even called out Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg following his last bout.
“Who do I want to fight? Mark Zuckerberg,” Pimblett told Michael Bisping.
“Lad I’m going to punch your head in, I am sick of you. Sick of you shutting my Instagram accounts down when all I do is help charities and help people with mental health problems.”
“You’re the biggest bully in the world, lad.”
But not much know that before becoming ‘The Baddy’ we all know today, Pimblett was once a very goofy looking kid.
Rare footage recently resurfaced of the 16 years old Pimblett getting interviewed ahead of his fourth amateur fight. However, this version of Pimblett might surprise you.
No trademark hair, no explosive persona, and braces around his teeth. Should he doesn’t introduce himself at the beginning of the video, we might doubt this is Paddy Pimblett we currently know.
Even in his interviews, he only answered whatever was being asked with no unnecessary follow-ups. Pretty much a different guy from the big-mouthed Pimblett signed with the UFC today.
The Liverpudlian will be back in the octagon at UFC London on July 23 against fellow prospect Jordan Leavitt. Heavyweight contender Tom Aspinall, who’s seeking to break into the Top Five will headline the card against Curtis Blaydes.
Pimblett was quick to regain all of the weight lost and had started his soul food pregnancy diet.
Pimblett was recently fat shamed by TJ Dillashaw for the weight gain.
“He’s just loving diabetes,” Dillashaw said on “The Schaub Show.” “That’s like a recipe for destroying your body. I guess there’s one thing when I look at it: They can promote him the right way and do all this good stuff, and he’s got some stuff to grow and get into the higher echelons of the UFC, but if you keep that same work ethic that he has now, he’ll never be a champion.
“You can’t have that down time like that. You can’t get that fat. You can’t get out of shape. It just proves the dedication to what you need to do. I’m not trying to pound on him or anything, but that’s something I think he’s going to have to figure out with age. He’s young. It’s a full-time job. This isn’t just wanting to be a fighter; you have to be a fighter.”
Fellow scouser Darren Till and Molly McCann will also make their appearance, against Jack Hermansson and Hannah Goldy respectively.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
A picture of Pimblett was misattributed to him during the writing of this article. Pimblett had shared the picture on his own personal profile. We apologize for the mistake- it has since been deleted.