Paddy Pimblett can become bigger than Conor McGregor, ex-UFC analyst Dan Hardy told MMA Fighting this week.
Combat athletes became stars through the UFC before — like Chuck Liddell, Georges St. Pierre, and Anderson Silva — but nobody had crossed over into the mainstream sporting consciousness quite like McGregor.
At the peak of the Irishman's powers, he slew big-name opponents like Jose Aldo while spitting quotable one-liners and gracing magazine covers.
Like McGregor, Pimblett is a former Cage Warriors champion who is fast becoming a considerable commodity for MMA's market-leading company in a burgeoning European territory.
Since joining Cage Warriors, Pimblett has won three fights in a row — all by finish while captivating sell-out audiences in London, England.
The 27-year-old knocked out Luigi Vendramini last year in Las Vegas before submitting Rodrigo Vargas and Jordan Leavitt with rear-naked chokes in March and then July.
Pimblett can be 'something way more' than McGregor, Hardy said
Hardy, another former Cage Warriors champion who achieved fame in the UFC, compared Pimblett to McGregor while speaking on MMA Fighting's show The MMA Hour.
"I would hope Paddy's focus is on the belt as opposed to the super fights right now because he is in a very strong position, where he can become something way more than Conor McGregor," said Hardy.
"And I know that is a difficult thing for us to imagine, but we couldn't have imagined that of Conor McGregor before he stepped out of Cage Warriors."
Pimblett could even surpass McGregor, as the popular prizefighter does not appear to have the same troubles outside of the sport, said Hardy, referring to McGregor's previous run-ins with the law.
"I think people's brands change and shift," he said. "Conor is not the same. He is not as easy to gravitate toward as he used to be at the beginning of his career.
"It is much easier to relate to people when they are stepping off the streets, going through hard times."
People can no longer relate to McGregor like they once could, according to the analyst
Those same people now struggle to relate to McGregor as he's "living on yachts and stuff," Hardy said. "He's quite estranged from his fan base."
McGregor will always be a box office attraction because of he's an entertainer, according to Hardy. "But I think people will follow Paddy to a much longer degree."
He said this is because Pimblett will not "fall off in the same way Conor did" who ended up finding himself "in handcuffs."
