Dan Hardy thinks the best is yet to come from Paddy Pimblett.
After reeling off seven straight victories inside the Octagon, ‘The Baddy’ will look to claim the biggest W of his career when he meets Justin Gaethje at UFC 324 for the interim lightweight championship.
Following victories over Bobby ‘King’ Green, Tony Ferguson and Michael Chandler, some have suggested that Pimblett’s strong schedule – or lack thereof – does not merit a title shot.
However, Hardy doesn’t necessarily see it that way and fully expects Pimblett to emerge and express himself in his toughest test yet.
“I love the journey that Paddy has been on and the impact he has had,” Hardy said in an interview with Submission radio. “His brand arrived in the UFC at the right time. I don’t think we’ve seen the best version of Paddy yet, and that makes me excited to see what he does against Gaethje. Every time we see him, his striking has noticeably improved. Grappling is his main asset, but the work he did in that first minute against Chandler – smashing his lead leg and then sticking it to the body with the front kick – that was a much more measured version of Paddy.
“We still saw him throw a flying knee and a jumping triangle. There’s still chaos in his game, and that’s one of the reasons he’s so effective. If you go back to his Cage Warriors days, he was all chaos – you were on the edge of your seat waiting for him to just go, then it was flying knees and he came at you. Mostly it was the sweeping style that exposed people’s backs, and that’s how he had so many quick finishes: putting people out.” scrambling position and capitalizing That’s where Paddy’s game plan should be: keep it MMA, force Gaethje to scramble.
“Even though Gaethje has really good takedown defense, he creates scrambles, he creates opportunities to throw those knees, the flying knees. Paddy is so good at riding the crest of the chaotic wave that he creates, and that’s where you find him on your back.”
A winner in three of his last four, Gaethje heads into Saturday’s title race well aware that this will likely be the final title shot of his career.
Will Gaethje break through and hand Pimblett the first loss of his UFC career, or will ‘The Baddy’ continue to show the world why he is the future face of MMA?
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