Paddy Pimblett has ‘Conor McGregor vibe’ and could fight on PPV next, says UFC president Dana White

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

UFC president Dana White has said Paddy Pimblett has a ‘Conor McGregor vibe’ and will likely fight on a pay-per-view next time out.

Liverpudlian Pimblett is 3-0 in the UFC with three stoppage wins, having most recently submitted Jordan Leavitt at UFC London last Saturday. The 27-year-old was the star of the show at the O2 Arena, as he was in March, and followed his win with a powerful speech on men’s mental health.

Pimblett claimed after the fight that he would not fight at the O2 again, calling the 17,000-seater venue “too small” and saying his next bout would probably be on a UFC pay-per-view. The Liverpool FC fan also has dreams of fighting at his club’s Anfield ground.

“This kid... to talk about championship stuff right now, it’s a little too soon, but he’s got that Conor McGregor vibe,” White said at a press conference on Tuesday.

“When he walks out, when he’s in the arena, the way that the fans receive him, the way that the media covers him, the way that the people who search for content...

“I wanna show you something, this is pretty amazing. On my Instagram – this is me, not UFC or whatever – the face-off for the main event, the heavyweights [Curtis] Blaydes and [Tom Aspinall] did 203,000 views on my Instagram. Paddy Pimblett’s face-off did 1.7 million. Isn’t that crazy?

“I think what we do next is we take him to either Boston or New York and he ends up on pay-per-view, then you bring him to Vegas.”

Pimblett won his UFC debut last year by knocking out Luigi Vendramini in the first round, before submitting Rodrigo Vargas in Round 1 this March and similarly beating American Leavitt with a rear naked choke.