How do you follow up the red, white and blue fever dream that was the UFC’s bonanza White House card?
Well, you bring back Conor McGregor to headline his first fight in five years and stick his heir apparent in the co-main event.
Paddy Pimblett wasn’t even in the UFC the last time MMA’s biggest and most divisive superstar entered the cage but this Saturday in Las Vegas could see the torch passed to him.
If both men win, the promo cuts itself and Pimblett vs McGregor (a fight the ‘Baddy’ wants in Madison Square Garden) would surely have Dana White frothing at the mouth.
If McGregor looks a shell of himself after half a decade spending more time in his own pub than a gym, then Pimblett is ready to fill his boots.
The Liverpool fighter must take care of business against Benoit Saint-Denis this weekend but like everyone else, is fascinated to see which version of ‘Notorious’ will show up.
Paddy Pimblett lost against Justin Gaethje in January and is looking to bounce back
The 31-year-old told Daily Mail Sport: ‘He could be a shell of himself or be rejuvenated and look the best he’s ever looked.
‘I’ve done a cross prediction, if it finishes before two rounds, I think McGregor will get the knockout, just because of the size difference where Max has come up from featherweight over the last two years and Charles Oliveira made him look small.
‘He’s also been dropped three times in his last four fights so I can see McGregor, if he catches him, putting him down. But if it goes past the second round of round two into round three, Max is just going to beat him up on the feet with hands, he’ll just pepper him. He won’t let him breathe, he’ll just be on him like a rash.’
‘If I come out of this fight unscathed, which I think I will, and Conor wins… even if Conor loses I’d still fight him if you beat him everyone will always remember your name. I’d love to fight again before the end of the year and a fight at welterweight would suit me down to a tee.’
McGregor’s comeback coincides with attempts to rehabilitate his public image. He says he is no longer motivated by the money and ‘forces’ that he attributes to the long list of controversies and shameful incidents over the last five years.
Last year he was ordered to pay £206,000 in damages plus costs to Nikita Hand, who accused him of raping her in a hotel in Dublin in 2018. He lost the civil jury appeal and public perception of him, especially in Ireland, has been severely damaged.
McGregor professes to being a changed man and now deeply religious, recently telling Ariel Helwani: ‘I forgive myself for disgracing the position God put me in, which I’ve done many times, and I won’t do it again.’
Conor McGregor, pictured this week, is making his comeback at UFC 329 this weekend
How would Pimblett deal with a McGregor-esque stratosphere of fame and pitfalls that come with it?
‘I did it (lost his way) years ago with a lot less money when I was much less well known,’ he says. ‘I went off the rails a bit when I won the Cage Warriors world title, started doing stupid things, going out partying with people who weren’t my close friends, people who wanted me there just to get into places, so I’ve already experienced all of that.
‘I’m so glad when I look back at it now that it happened back then. My head would have fallen off back then if I was in the UFC aged 21, I would have been on the Las Vegas strip somewhere naked.’
Opportunity knocks for Pimblett, even though his last outing ended in a first defeat in the UFC against Justin Gaethje back in January.
Losses used to devastate him for weeks. But now family life, with two two-year-old twin girls to distract him, and a heart-warming comment from his dad helped put him on an even keel.
He explained: ‘The girls were two in April, after the fight I just went on holiday, went away for three weeks to Oman which is a lovely country and the Maldives. I just spent time with my family, chilled with my daughters and wife, ate lots of good food and drank lots of fizzy drinks and came back like a little pudding.
‘After any loss I had when I was younger, I just cried my eyes out for days, sometimes weeks. This one it wasn’t like that, this one it was like I know I can come back better and go again, it wasn’t the end of the world which is weird because I’ve always been like that.
‘One of the best things anyone has ever said to me was in the back, my dad grabbed me and said: “I’ve never been so proud of you”. I said I was sorry I lost and was like, “lad you just showed what a warrior you are, I’ve never been so proud of you in my entire life”, and that was after losing.’
The defeat over five rounds was brutal and a setback for Pimblett but Gaethje’s subsequent win at the White House over Ilia Topuria has helped shift perceptions.
A win over ex-French special forces soldier Saint-Denis will elevate him right back into the title mix or tee up the McGregor showdown.
Saint-Denis served in the military for five years before transitioning into full-time MMA and he’s established himself as one of the top lightweights, currently ranked No 5 in the division.
Pimblett is certain that he would not have the same longevity in the armed forces if he ever had to join, joking: ‘I’d tell someone to f**k off and get kicked out dead quick. I’m not getting told what to do by some d***head.
‘I’m not getting shouted at and spoken down to like a child. I’d tell someone to f**k off and get kicked out. Benoit is a good little boy and does what he’s told!’
Pimblett has been open about how his ego led him to fighting on Gaethje’s terms back in January but doesn’t foresee the same issue against Saint-Denis.
‘Benoit can’t set a trap like Gaethje can, he’s just not that level, simple as that,’ he explained. ‘There’s levels when it comes to MMA and he’s nowhere near Justin’s level and I’ll show that on Saturday night.
‘I think he’ll go back to default and try and take me down. I don’t think he’ll be able to help himself. In his last three or four fights apart from Beneil Dariush, every fight he’s thrown a back kick or back hand and shot in straight away within the first 20 seconds.
‘If he shoots in on me he’s getting his neck wrapped up and he’s going to sleep. You never know he might try and keep it on the feet a little bit. I know I’ve got cleaner striking than him, I know I might get hit a little bit but I hit people and he’s got no head movement. Even Dan Hooker was piecing him up on the feet and he’s s***.’
With the USA now eliminated from the World Cup, perhaps even more eyeballs will turn to Saturday night’s huge fight card in Sin City.
Pimblett, a massive Liverpool supporter, has little interest in the international game but is relishing the prospect of watching the Reds under new boss Andoni Iraola next season.
‘I think Iraola is a very good appointment, he looks like a great manager. He got Bournemouth to sixth on a shoe-string budget.
‘I’m not saying he’s the new Jurgen Klopp but he’s a bit more like Klopp, more emotional.
‘The way Slot was worked the first year with his interviews but the second year he made himself look stupid and Iraola has a bit more emotion, with that style of football Liverpool fans crave.’
Given his own flowing locks, raw talent and never-say-die approach, Pimblett’s answer to who he’d like Liverpool to sign is perhaps not a surprise…
‘To be honest I’d love Darwin Nunez back on a free. Give me the madman back on a free, that’d be boss!’
