Could Paddy Pimblett become UFC champion someday? Exploring the Liverpudlian's chances of winning the lightweight title

UFC 314 couldn't have gone any better for Paddy Pimblett. Against the stiffest test of his career, the Englishman passed with flying colors, brutalizing Michael Chandler, a former three-time Bellator lightweight champion and one-time UFC lightweight title challenger.

However, the question remains. Just how good is Pimblett? After all, Chandler isn't exactly a great measuring stick for fighter excellence. He is 2-5 in the UFC, on a three-fight losing streak, and his only wins in the promotion have come against Dan Hooker and the ghost of Tony Ferguson.

Hooker is a solid top 10 fighter, but was coming off a brutal unanimous decision loss to Dustin Poirier at the time. He had taken tremendous damage. Meanwhile, Ferguson was on a three-fight losing streak that eventually grew to eight consecutive losses — the most in UFC history.

So, does beating Chandler have any real bearing on Pimblett's potential as a lightweight title challenger? Maybe or maybe not.

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Paddy Pimblett: Fighter breakdown

At his core, Paddy Pimblett is a grappler. He is a slick Brazilian jiu-jitsu specialist with an eye for submissions and damage. He isn't content with dragging his opponent to the mat for the mere sake of control. If he cannot lock in a submission, he resorts to ground-and-pound.

On the ground, Pimblett is the ultimate opportunist. Once a scramble ensues, he thrives, using the chaos to enter a flow-state where his flexibility works to his advantage. He is always hunting the back, which provides him with varied setups for reliable submissions like rear-naked chokes.

If his opponent is too defensive, he uses elbows and hammer-fists to soften them up. The logic is simple. If his foe does nothing to improve their position while absorbing frequent shots, they're in danger of the referee stepping in to stop the fight. They must move, and when they do, they leave behind openings.

Check out Paddy Pimblett TKO'ing Michael Chandler:

These openings allow 'The Baddy' to find his moments for chokes, which are more reliable than joint locks, which can leave the grappler in a vulnerable position once the opponent escapes. Unfortunately, Pimblett isn't the greatest wrestler, so his ability to drag fights to the mat is also opportunistic.

He has excellent timing, level-changing once his foe squares their hips to commit to a punch, from which he can score easy double-leg takedowns. Furthermore, Pimblett has great physical strength, which he uses to outmuscle opponents in the clinch, lifting them off their feet and bumping his hip into theirs to slam them.

This is what happened to Michael Chandler when they fought. However, he struggles to consistently take fights to the ground and often relies on his opponents making mistakes, much like King Green. As far as his striking is concerned, there isn't much to say. He's powerful and fast, therefore he's effective.

His boxing is subpar, and he has a weak grasp on the fundamentals, often retreating in a straight line. He also refuses to tuck his chin or move his head off the center line due to a misguided belief that he can't be knocked out. These defensive lapses saw him struggle against Jared Gordon, an unranked journeyman.

Check out Paddy Pimblett's defensive shortcomings:

Pimblett's jab is decent, but infrequent, and he's more likely to sitdown on looping counters to ward off pressure. His kicks are excellent, and he typically uses low kicks to score from the outside, while his front kick to the body is his main distance management tool.

Despite it all, he has great fight IQ, which he demonstrated against Chandler. 'Iron' had success in round one by keeping his base low, almost level-changing, every time he lunged into range with hooks and haymakers. Before long, Pimblett punished Chandler for these poor habits with intercepting uppercuts and knees.

The knee, in particular, changed the course of their fight. Pimblett split Chandler open with it, and the finish was inevitable thereafter. The Scouser is a rounded fighter with excellent physical attributes. He's big for the division, physically strong, and powerful. But is he a championship-caliber fighter?

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Paddy Pimblett's championship potential vs. the UFC lightweight top five

There are several names Paddy Pimblett will have to face at certain points if he ever intends to fight for UFC gold. At lightweight, that's Arman Tsarukyan, Charles Oliveira, Justin Gaethje, Max Holloway, and, of course, the lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev.

While he's not yet ranked in the division, Ilia Topuria is another option, especially given the pair's bitter rivalry. How does Pimblett fare against them? Tsarukyan, who is ranked #1, would be an exceptionally difficult matchup. First, he is freakishly strong, too strong for Pimblett to outmuscle in the clinch.

Second, he too thrives in scrambles, such that a surgical grappler like Makhachev could barely control him on the mat, despite securing excellent positions. Even Oliveira, the greatest submission specialist in UFC history, was outgrappled by Tsarukyan. On the ground, he and Pimblett would be at a stalemate.

On the feet, Tsarukyan is a more disciplined and powerful striker. The Englishman's chances against him are low. Then, there's Oliveira himself, an ex-champion who is ranked No.2. If the fight hits the mat, Pimblett will struggle with the Brazilian, who is as high-level as they come.

The only instances of 'do Bronx' making mistakes on the ground are either when he's hurt or compromised by a large weight cut like during his featherweight days. On the feet, his pressure, accuracy and straights will make Pimblett pay for his defensive deficiencies and habit of backing up in a straight line.

Gaethje, ranked #3, would be a relatively easy win for Pimblett due to his complete lack of grappling. He's a decent defensive wrestler, but he has no Brazilian jiu-jitsu to speak of and gasses out in stunningly quick fashion. Holloway, ranked #4, by contrast, is very difficult to outwrestle and pin to the mat.

However, the Hawaiian's boxing heavy stance would expose his lead leg to Pimblett's low kicks. He has, though, addressed this in the past by faking a step-in jab to draw out the low kick, only to pull his foot back and throw counters over the top when his foe's kicking leg is still off the mat.

It's not an impossible fight for Pimblett to win, but he's likely to struggle with Holloway's striking and gas tank. Makhachev is simply too good. He won't be taken down by Pimblett, and he's too defensively sound for the Scouser to land anything with his looping shots. It would be a surgical breakdown by Dagestani.

Then there's Topuria, who is MMA's finest boxer. The Spaniard is a complete fighter, with high-level wrestling and exceptional grappling, which Bryce Mitchell can attest to. He is also monstrously powerful, which both Alexander Volkanovski and the once impregnable chin of Holloway can attest to.

He stalks his prey with cold-blooded composure, backing them up to the fence, where he unloads with combinations once the opportunity presents itself. Pimblett's habit of backing up in a straight line and doing nothing to protect his chin would come back to haunt him against Topuria.

After all, retreating linearly is what lost Volkanovski the fight.