Back in 2023, a certain MMA star was pretty critical of  Paddy Pimblett after the fiasco at UFC 282. The Englishman had a unanimous decision win against Jared Gordon, but when Joe Rogan said that the fight was pretty close while taking the Octagon interview, Pimblett vehemently refused and said, “No, it wasn’t, it wasn’t close.” This created a huge uproar among the MMA fans who thought that Gordon should have won the fight. A former middleweight champ had said in his podcast that Pimblett might need to ‘humble himself’. But now, after the UFC 314 showdown, he is completely shocked at how Pimblett kept his word and proved that “Scousers don’t get knocked out.”

Michael Bisping has now changed his stance on ‘The Baddy’ and said that he did remember to either “put up” or “shut up,” as the former had explained in his Believe You Me Podcast a month ago. While recapping what happened at Kaseya Centre for UFC 314, Bisping spoke about the spectacular TKO win that the 30-year-old bagged in his recent episode on YouTube.

Bisping said, “Now the main event, Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett. He was unreal. He was incredible. I was left in shock. That performance was insane, right? It was the toughest test of his career. He had to prove to the world that he could back up all the talk that he’s had, all the bravado, all the arrogance, you might call it all of the confidence that he has talked about since day one. When it came time to put up or shut up, he passed the test with flying colours.”

The Englishman now stands at 7-0 in UFC with a probable leap to the top, then from his #12 rank. The finish came at 3 minutes, 7 seconds of Round 3 after Pimblett moved to mount and gave a series of 12-to-6 elbows. The ending series actually started at the beginning of the round, when Pimblett cut Chandler with a vicious knee to the head.

“This is how we win,” Pimblett said in his post-fight interview in the Octagon. “We gameplan, we use our fight IQ, and we beat motherf—ers up. Anyone else got any questions?” Since he proved his prowess, he’s confidently called out some elite fighters in the lightweight category, like Charles Oliveira and Arman Tsarukyan. Interestingly, Bisping was rooting for Pimblett’s game plan way before the fight commenced.

Michael Bisping thought that Paddy Pimblett’s game plan would work

Bisping was speaking to TNT Sports for the UFC 314 preview show and believed that the Englishman was coming into the fight with the right mindset and game plan. He detailed the plan and said, “Paddy’s still very much in his prime. And he is getting better with every fight. And I saw him talking about how he’s going to keep Chandler on the outside and butcher his cast with low kicks. That’s the perfect game plan! Because I think he is going to be quicker than Chandler.”

‘The Count’ did incline towards ‘The Baddy’ winning the fight but still gave the benefit of the doubt to Chandler as well. He reasoned that both had explosive fight arsenal up their sleeve, and it depended on, ultimately, how they would use it. Ultimately Pimblett used it better than ‘Iron’ and won the mega fight.

‘Iron’ was rushed backstage after the fight because of the devastating flying knee from Pimblett that sliced open Chandler’s cheek. So now that Pimblett has established himself as a top dog in lightweight while calling out the elite fighters, who do you think his next opponent will be? Share your ideas in the comments below.