Former Cage Warriors champion Paddy Pimblett heads into the Octagon this weekend hoping to go 3-0 and maintain his status as one of the most hyped prospects in the company. Jordan Leavitt is trying to stop that.
Leavitt, who is 3-1 in the UFC since getting signed off of the Contender Series in 2020, will fight Pimblett on the main card of UFC Fight Night: Blaydes vs. Aspinall on Saturday. The event takes place at London’s O2 Arena.
During a pre-fight press conference Leavitt spoke about Pimblett. Specifically, he got into Pimblett’s brash and confident demeanour. Something he’s not buying.
“I do think it’s mostly an act,” he said (ht Sportskeeda). “I know a lot of fighters and I’ve trained with ‘Cowboy’ [Cerrone] for the past like seven, eight years and he’s very nervous before fights. And if he who has the second most fights in the UFC gets nervous, has all these insecurities, I know everyone else does too. So I’m very suspicious of like blind bravado a lot. When I see it from a fighter, I feel like it’s usually hiding insecurities… I’m suspicious of his whole shtick.”
After beating Jose Flores by submission on the Contender Series, Leavitt faced TUF veteran Matt Wiman at UFC on ESPN: Hermansson vs. Vettori. Leavitt beat Wiman with a rarely seen KO (slam).
After that fight he took a unanimous decision loss to Claudio Puelles. He rebounded from that loss with wins over Matt Sayles (submission) and Trey Ogden (split decision).
Pimblett’s UFC debut came in 2021. His first fight was a KO win over Luigi Vendramini. In March he submitted Rodrigo Vargas.
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