Paddy Pimblett experienced a range of emotions when he saw Conor McGregor go down at UFC 329.<\/p>\n
McGregor\u2019s highly anticipated return from a five-year layoff ended in disaster Saturday as he suffered a leg injury that resulted in him suffering a loss to Max Holloway in just 69 seconds. At no point was McGregor able to show even a hint of the two-division champion he once was and the anti-climactic result left fans wondering whether the soon-to-be 38-year-old will ever regain his prime form.<\/p>\n
The UFC released a clip of Pimblett reacting live to McGregor\u2019s loss, and he seemed enthusiastic about possibly replacing McGregor as one of the faces of the promotion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s happened?\u201d Pimblett said. \u201cOh my God, McGregor\u2019s done already? Well, he\u2019s finished, the new boy is in town. The main man\u2019s here. I can become the face of the organization now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters at the evening\u2019s post-fight press conference, Pimblett took on a more sympathetic tone when asked about McGregor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was sad to see,\u201d Pimblett said. \u201cBut that\u2019s the thing with this sport, you\u2019ve got to stay consistent, you\u2019ve got to keep fighting, and I think where he hasn\u2019t fought in so long, his body couldn\u2019t keep up with it. Coming out and throwing a crazy kick like that, first thing, his knee just collapsed underneath him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel bad for him. He\u2019s put so much into coming back and getting back in the octagon and that happens in the first five seconds, you\u2019ve got to feel for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pimblett has been one of the UFC\u2019s rising stars ever since he joined the promotion in 2021. He won his first seven UFC fights, including notable wins over veterans Michael Chandler, King Green, and Tony Ferguson, but fell short in an interim lightweight title fight opportunity against Justin Gaethje this past January. On Saturday, he bounced back in dramatic fashion, needing just 52 seconds to submit<\/a> the top 10-ranked Benoit Saint Denis.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no questioning the Las Vegas crowd was giving Pimblett a raucous reception all week, so it\u2019s understandable he sees himself as a star that could someday be on the level of McGregor. For now, he\u2019s focused on booking another big fight and eventually claiming UFC gold.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to be a world champion,\u201d Pimblett said. \u201cI want to be undisputed champion of the world. I want to be the first-ever world champion from Liverpool and I\u2019m going to do that. I know that\u2019s in my destiny, I know that\u2019s in my fate, whether it\u2019s in the next fight or the next 10 fights. I\u2019m going to be a world champion. It\u2019s that simple.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you want me to fight Justin next, if you want me to fight \u2018Posh Boy\u2019 [Arman Tsarukyan] next, if you want me to fight \u2018Chorizo\u2019 [Ilia Topuria], if you want me to fight Charles [Oliveira] next, anyone can get it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paddy Pimblett experienced a range of emotions when he saw Conor McGregor go down at UFC 329. McGregor\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":795853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-795852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=795852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/795852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/795853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=795852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=795852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=795852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}