Paddy Pimblett’s dislike for Jordan Leavitt has grown exponentially heading into UFC London.
The lightweight matchup will take place on the main card of Saturday’s event at the O2 Arena — which serves as the second time the promotion has hosted a fight card in the venue this year.
With the bout being days away, “The Baddy” just couldn’t hold back how he currently feels about Leavitt.
“He’s pissed me off,” Pimblett told reporters at the UFC London media day. “When the fight got announced, I really didn’t mind him. He had 12,000 followers, now he has 30,000 just off the back of my name, and the people who don’t like me. He’s got loads of followers just because people don’t like me.
“He can talk all the s*** he wants, but he knows full well that when that cage door gets shut, I’m going to take his head home with me.
“He’s only ever fought in the APEX. He’s never fought anywhere else. He’s never fought with a crowd, and now he’s fighting with my crowd? His head’s going to fall off, and I think it might be the first time someone ever s**** themselves in the octagon, [or] the first time they’ll ever have to mop s*** up off the floor.”
The build to the fight has been an interesting one with both fighters taking digs at the level of competition each has faced to get to this point — which continued on Wednesday. While Leavitt is predicting that he’ll finish the former Cage Warriors fighter and then “twerk,” Pimblett is planning his own out-of-the-box celebration.”
“He’s being a little weirdo like he is, but no one can out-weird me. I’m weirder then anyone,” Pimblett said.
“I’m going to teabag him. I’m going to squat as close to his head as possible without the ref shouting at me. Just squat up and down like I’m on Modern Warfare 2.
“I’m going to come out and I’m going to take his head off,” Pimblett continued. “I’m not going to be shooting no takedowns. I’m coming to stand with him and take his head off. I’m coming to take his chin home with me. He can’t throw a punch to save his life, he really can’t. He doesn’t come into fights to win, he comes into fights not to lose. Try and take me down and sniff my balls for three rounds, that’s not going to work.”
Leavitt is 3-1 in his UFC run since earning a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series, with the lone loss coming to one of the lightweight division’s dark horse contenders in Claudio Puelles in June 2021. Since then, the 27-year-old bounced back with an inverted triangle submission win at UFC Vegas 45 in December, and a split decision win over Trey Ogden at UFC Vegas 51 in April.
Pimblett has picked up a pair of first-round submission wins to kick off his octagon tenure over Luigi Vendramini and Rodrigo Vargas — with the latter coming at March’s UFC London event.
To say Pimblett hasn’t been impressed with Leavitt’s resumé would be a big understatement.
“He’s an absolute crab,” Pimblett said during the UFC London media day. “He can’t throw a punch to save his life. He’s talking s***, and that’s mad. I can’t believe he’s talking s*** about my opponents. That Trey Ogden lad, my nan’s dead and she’d finish him.
“He’s an absolute idiot. The kid that he reverse triangled is a fat featherweight. His ground game’s terrible, [the fact] he got twistered by Bryce Mitchell says it all. Matt Wiman should be in an old-age home, he was on The Ultimate Fighter season five and I watched that when I was 15. I’d beat Matt Wiman after I beat Jordan on Saturday night.”