There are bold takes, then there are wild takes—and then there’s whatever this is. After Paddy Pimblett’s explosive win over Michael Chandler at UFC 314, one well-known MMA influencer is already jumping the gun, making an explosive claim regarding a match up with Islam Makhachev
According to him, not only will Paddy keep rising through the ranks, but come 2026, he’ll actually humble the champion. Perhaps it is recency bias.
But he can’t possibly be blamed after having watched Pimblett stomped out Michael Chandler out of title contention for good. Pimblett secured arguably the biggest win of his UFC career so far, stopping Chandler in the third round at UFC 314 with vicious ground and pound.
After the win, MMA Guru took to Twitter to share his thoughts on Pimblett and his ceiling in the sport.
“Mark my words, I have readjusted my beliefs now. Paddy Pimblett will toy with Islam Makhachev in 2026. IF Makhachev DARES to stick around that long. Makhachev would never have made Chandler look that easy”, he said with genuine conviction.
Despite Chandler putting up an uncharacteristically calculated performance, landing takedowns and controlling his back for a minute, Paddy simply had too much sauce for the American.
An illegal shot from Chandler had the referee separate the two, but with the reset, Paddy exhibited his expertise with grappling. He would follow it up with a jumping knee that appeared to hurt Chandler more than the groin kick he had landed on Paddy minutes ago.
Paddy would score a huge takedown, secure a full mount, and whale on the American till the referee pulled him off.
And when the fight was over, Chandler was left a drooling mess on the canvas, whereas Paddy went to Joe Rogan and aura-farmed his way into calling out the top 5 lightweights in the promotion.
Pimblet marches closer to UFC gold
“This is how we win. We beat motherf*ckers up,” he declared to a roaring crowd. Screaming at the camera, the Liverpudlian fighter asked, “Anyone else got any questions?”
Having defeated Chandler in the dominant fashion that he did, Pimblett had the commentators and analysts present in the arena raving about how fast he had become a credible threat to the top fighters in the division.
So, when the time came for the post-fight in-octagon interview, UFC caller Rogan asked him who he wanted next.
Without missing a beat, Paddy called out the entire upper echelon of the lightweight division. After naming former champions Dustin Poirier, Justin Gaethje, and Charles Oliveira, Paddy took a second and decided he wanted to settle on the Brazilian.
“I respect Dustin, Justin, and Charles. Charles is the biggest legend out of them all and he gets called the best submission artist the UFC’s ever seen, well I dispute that. I’m here, so me versus Charles“, he declared.
However, the camera had by then panned on Gaethje, to a huge roar by the crowd at the Kaseya Center, Miami. Rogan then asserted that a fight between Oliveira and Pimblett would make the tickets fly off the shelves.
Meanwhile, Paddy also didn’t let go of the one man he has publicly hated for months now- Arman Tsarukyan. When asked, Pimblett didn’t hesitate to scream, “F*ck that sausage”, to another chorus of cheers from the crowd.
