Michael Bisping: Paddy Pimblett Needs to ‘Humble Himself’
UFC commentator and former middleweight champion Michael Bisping dished out some harsh advice to Paddy “The Baddy” Pimblett. On an episode of his Believe You Me Podcast, Bisping spoke about Pimblett and why needs to humble himself.
For context, at UFC 280, Pimblett earned a decision victory over Jared Gordon. The issue is that most people think Gordon won the fight. In the aftermath of the bout, Pimblett declared himself the clear winner. This certainly rubbed a lot of fans the wrong way.
“I think what Paddy needs to do is just humble himself a little bit,” Bisping said. “Stop with this ‘I’m the new cash cow’ shit. When I asked him … who would he want to fight next, (he was) saying, ‘I don’t need to say anyone’s name, because I am the man, I’m the boy, I’m the cash cow.’ And then you’re yet to fight someone ranked.
“I feel that that, when you’re dominating people, is all well and good. When you’re scraping by a victory, it doesn’t have the same effect, and it starts to rub people the wrong way.”
Quote via The Score
In addition, Bisping spoke on Pimblett’s feud with Ariel Helwani where Pimbett expressed that he should be paid to do interviews.
“The whole pay-me-for-interviews thing, I think that left a bad taste in people’s mouths. And again, I’m not hating. I’m just being honest in what I saw.”
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Bisping is once again proving why he is one of the elites in MMA media and deserves credit for his analysis of this situation.
The most impressive thing about this sentiment, which aligns with Bisping’s entire media career, is that he has his finger directly on the pulse of MMA fans. The majority of the time, Bisping can usually tell exactly what fans are thinking. That is not something that many media members or fighters are able to accomplish. In the case of Pimblett, Bisping hit a homerun. He knows the fans don’t love how Pimblet has acted in the media lately and directly told Pimblett how he can rectify the issue.
On top of that, Bisping is providing great constructive criticism. He is not hating, he is simply explaining the situation and how to fix it. Bisping himself went through a similar situation in his career and was once not well-liked. If there is anyone who knows how to dig themselves out of a hole it is Bisping. I hope Pimblett heeds his advice.
I also credit Bisping for not folding on his opinion in an effort to add to the Pimblett hype train. As a UFC employee, I am willing to guess his bosses would prefer Bisping shower Pimblett with praise. Plus, Bisping and Pimblett are both Englishmen. That only gives Bisping more reason to side with Pimblett. Instead of selling out, Bisping told it like it is. His co-host, UFC lightweight Anthony Smith, also deserves credit for that as well.
Thankfully, Bisping does not think this will be the end for Pimblett.
“The sport forgives fast and quickly,” Bisping said. “All he’s got to do is go out there and beat someone, and that’s it – it’s all forgotten about. Go out there, smoke someone, be cool and be funny, and all the rest of it – everyone forgets. As I always say, this sport is about, ‘What have you done for me lately?'”
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Will Paddy Pimblett actually humble himself? I would not bet on it. Hopefully, he does though. Pimblett seems like a cool and funny guy when he is not leaning into his arrogant character.
