Paddy Pimblett and 4 other UFC fighters with reckless fighting styles

#2. Derek Brunson

Derek Brunson is one of the few high-level wrestlers in the UFC middleweight division. The American is powerful, strong, and explosive, possessing every athletic tool to be a dominant force in his resident weight class. Due to the sheer benefits of his athleticism, Brunson has enjoyed a fairly successful career at middleweight despite never challenging for the divisional title.

Prior to his violent loss to Jared Cannonier at UFC 271, Brunson was riding a five-fight win streak. Unfortunately, even Brunson's wins are punctuated by his in-cage recklessness. As a wrestler, Brunson is mainly interested in pursuing takedowns against his foes. The American will do so relentlessly at times, making no effort to use his striking to create openings for his takedowns while being content to dive in for his foe's hips over and over again, even tripping over himself.

Against Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker, Brunson's worst habits were glaring. He shoots for sloppy takedowns with no setup and leads with his chin sticking out every time he throws punches: an instinct that's present even when Brunson wins. When throwing punches, the American's eyes are almost towards the ceiling due to how far back his head is in his over-aggressive charges, opening himself up to counterpunches.

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#1. Paddy Pimblett

The UFC's newest budding star is Paddy 'The Baddy' Pimblett. A lightweight who has taken the promotion by storm, the Brit possesses a fairly well-rounded skill-set. However, Pimblett's bread and butter is his Brazilian jiu-jitsu skill-set, which benefits from his judo takedowns as they immediately land him in offensive positions like side control.

However, 'The Baddy' is reckless on the feet in both practice and attitude. Inside the octagon, Pimblett does not tuck his chin. Additionally, he does not possess an airtight guard, nor does he move his head. Nevertheless, Pimblett lunges forward with punches, never moving his head off the center-line, leading to concerns from observers who have implored him to tighten up his defensive striking.

The Brit's answer to those concerns has been to either claim that Scousers like him don't get knocked unconscious or claim that he enjoys being punched in the face. Due to Pimblett's natural aggression when striking, his poor defense leads to reckless exchanges on the feet that have already led to isolated moments of trouble during his career.