By any measure of meritocracy, Paddy Pimblett didn\u2019t deserve to fight for an interim title at UFC 324 but hype and potential go a long way when it comes to making the biggest and best matchups.<\/p>\n
Based on the MMA Fighting Global Rankings<\/a>, Pimblett doesn\u2019t hold a single win over anybody ranked in the top 15 and his biggest victory came against Michael Chandler, who sports a 2-5 record in the UFC with his most notable performance coming against Dan Hooker in 2021. While Pimblett showed incredible heart and durability in the five-round war at UFC 324, he never truly threatened Gaethje and he ultimately lost in lopsided fashion.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why UFC legend Matt Brown argues that while he doesn\u2019t buy that Pimblett got fraud-checked in his loss to Gaethje, the 31-year-old Scouser still has a lot to prove, especially if he wants to justify all the attention he\u2019s received thus far in his career.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s the problem with Paddy \u2026 I don\u2019t know if I pick him against anybody in the top 10,\u201d Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. \u201cMaybe even like top 12, top 13. I\u2019m not sure how far I\u2019d have to go down to find somebody I\u2019d favor him against.\u201d<\/p>\n The biggest problem with Pimblett is that there\u2019s no great measuring stick to use when comparing him to other fighters ranked in the top 15 at lightweight.<\/p>\n What comes next for Pimblett might be his most important fight to date because after competing for a title, Brown doesn\u2019t see any way to put him against lower ranked opponents.<\/p>\n At the same time, Benoit Saint Denis is surging off four straight wins \u2014 all by finish \u2014 and he\u2019s gunning for the top of the lightweight division, especially after taking out Dan Hooker at UFC 325. He struggled in his first \u201cprove it\u201d fight when he lost to Dustin Poirier and then fell to Renato Moicano in his next outing but Saint Denis has since bounced back in a major way.<\/p>\n Brown views Saint Denis as the perfect matchup to see where Pimblett stands in the division and it offers the French lightweight the chance to show he\u2019s ready to insert his name in title contention at 155 pounds.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean look Paddy\u2019s supposedly a top guy, he just fought for an interim title,\u201d Brown said. \u201cGive [Benoit Saint Denis] Paddy. Let\u2019s see who is the top guy here. You\u2019re in the UFC, you just fought for an interim title. There shouldn\u2019t be anybody that Paddy doesn\u2019t fight. You just fought for an interim title, buddy. These are all fair matchups. You were thought to be better than all these other guys. Go for it.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Saint Denis deserves it. He stepped up, he\u2019s fought. He lost to Dustin Poirier, which is first foray into the top 5 guys. What a tough fight that was. That gives him another chance to get his name out there and he\u2019s an exciting fighter, too. He\u2019s worth giving that kind of fight to. He beats Paddy, that gives him a lot of star, name value. He gets his name out there a lot and people start to really know who he is and you find out who Paddy is.\u201d<\/p>\n Since those back-to-back losses, Saint Denis\u2019 wins have come over Hooker, Mauricio Ruffy, Beneil Dariush and Kyle Prepolec. Both Hooker and Dariush are perennial top 10 lightweights and Ruffy is likely going to secure his own spot in the rankings after he took out Rafael Fiziev this past weekend.<\/p>\n That r\u00e9sum\u00e9 trumps what Pimblett has done thus far in the octagon, which is why Brown believes he should immediately call for the fight against Saint Denis to show he\u2019s a legitimate top fighter in the lightweight division.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we need to find out who Paddy is,\u201d Brown said. \u201cWe know where Saint Denis is, right? Losing to Dustin Poirier, you weren\u2019t there. Beating Dan Hooker, we\u2019ve got it narrowed down where you\u2019re at now. That doesn\u2019t mean he can\u2019t surpass where he was before because hopefully he\u2019s getting better everyday.<\/p>\n \u201cBut Paddy, we just don\u2019t know where he is. Matchup wise, I think that\u2019s a really great matchup, too. Saint Denis is a little wild on the feet but both of them great grappling. It could be a great grappling battle. Saint Denis hits hard, comes forward, fights hard, I think it\u2019s a great matchup. I should be a matchmaker.\u201d<\/p>\n Listen to new episodes of The Fighter vs. The Writer every Tuesday with audio only versions of the podcast available on Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Google Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, and iHeartRadio<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By any measure of meritocracy, Paddy Pimblett didn\u2019t deserve to fight for an interim title at UFC 324…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,701,638,37036,329,82,640,702],"class_list":["post-451357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-mmaf-podcast-network","tag-podcasts","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=451357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}