Paddy Pimblett feels like he is not given the credit he deserves, despite having the fan base and publicity of a genuine celebrity.
Pimblett (19-3 MMA, 3-0 UFC) is frustrated by the naysayers ahead of his fight against Jared Gordon at UFC 282 this Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
“They’re not (giving proper respect),” Pimblett told reporter at a pre-fight news conference.
“It’s cheeky, lad. People still aren’t taking me for real. Do you know what I mean? No one respects me and it pisses me off. I’ve just got to get on with that, lad. People don’t respect the come-up. It’s as simple as (that).”
Pimblett’s path has stayed the same heading into his fourth fight in the UFC. He keeps chipping away at skepticism as he rises in the ranks. Pimblett will finally make his long-awaited pay-per-view debut – in an international setting – after two high-profile fights in his native United Kingdom.
“This is going to be this fight,” Pimblett said.
“This is going to be my breakout performance. Because every one of my past opponents have been like, ‘Oh, he’s not good. He’s not good.’ I personally think my best opponent was my debut, Luigi Vendramini. He gets a bad wrap, lad. The only fights he lost were he lost a majority decision to Firas Ziam. He’s also pony-like. He lost his debut at welterweight and then I beat him. But that’s me. Do you know what I mean? People say, ‘Oh, well, he got cut.’ Yeah, Vargas wasn’t the best. He wasn’t. Jordan Leavitt is very good. No one had ever finished him. Everyone was talking about Claudio Puelles. He’s f*cking sh*t, as well. He couldn’t finish him, but everyone was saying that he’d beat me.
“I went and finished Leavitt on one of my worst nights when I turned up with a lot of sh*t going on behind the scenes and I still finished him in the second round. I’m disappointed in that performance, just like I was the Vargas one. I don’t think I’ve put a good performance in since my debut and I don’t even think that was that good, but this is going to be my breakout performance. People are going to see the improvements I’ve been over the past 15 months since I signed with the UFC. Yous are going to see.”
