Paddy Pimblett surprised his team and himself with the way he choked out Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 329.
“The Baddy” picked up arguably the most impressive win of his career Saturday with a stunning D’Arce choke on Benoit Saint Denis that left the top 10 lightweight sleeping just 52 seconds into the opening round. Known for his aggressive style, Saint Denis looked to overwhelm Pimblett with his wrestling, but fell prey to the Scouser’s dangerous submission game.
At the evening’s post-fight scrum, Pimblett explained how he executed a finish that he’d worked on especially for Saint Denis.
“My corner was right in front of me,” Pimblett said. “My head coach Paul, Ellis, and Chris were all there and Paul literally said, ‘Don’t burn your arms out,’ but I knew I had it cinched up. I knew he was good at defending a guillotine, so we worked on other things around the guillotine and that was just there, picture-perfect.
“It wasn’t a proper Peruvian necktie, but I literally drilled a Peruvian necktie for the first time in about 10 years about five weeks ago with my coach and it was like a mixture between a D’Arce and Peruvian necktie, but that’s just how good my jiu-jitsu is. I can link things together like that flawlessly.”
Prior to running into Pimblett, Saint Denis had never lost by submission before; ironically, this was the first time Pimblett had actually attempted to pull off the fight-ending choke, which utilized all of Pimblett’s limbs and looked to be a combination of signature moves.
“I’ve never done that before,” Pimblett said. “I haven’t, I’ve never done that before. I just did that on the fly, that’s how I roll. My jiu-jitsu’s the best in the world.”
While Pimblett’s standing among the best grapplers in MMA is up for debate, his star power is becoming impossible to deny. “The Baddy” was met with a raucous reception from the fans in Las Vegas all throughout fight week and his energetic entrance Saturday had the vast majority of their crowd on their feet.
The reaction wasn’t lost on UFC CEO Dana White, who has been wowed by Pimblett’s growing popularity, which boomed even after he suffered his first loss to Justin Gaethje in an interim lightweight title fight at UFC 324 this past January.
“He gained so much respect in that last fight,” White said at the evening’s post-fight presser. “My social team was telling after that last loss he gained, like, two million followers on social media from that night to the next morning. The way he came in tonight, it felt like he was the world champion.
“If you break this fight down, I felt like Saint Denis’ chance to win this fight was to keep it on his feet and strike and then he shoots right in for a takedown. Very, very crazy, and what a nasty choke he put on him. It was incredible. Incredible performance for as short as it was.”
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