Paddy Pimblett Refocused And ‘Ready To Shut A Few Wozzas Up’ At Cage Warriors 90

Paddy Pimblett’s long awaited return to the Cage Warriors cage goes down on Feb. 24 when he takes on Alexis Savvidis at Cage Warriors 90.

Pimblett hasn’t fought since losing his Cage Warriors featherweight title back in April last year and will now be making the move up to 155-pounds for the first time in his career. Speaking exclusively to MMANytt.com earlier this week, Pimblett explained the massive difference that fighting at lightweight is going to make to his preparation and how it will allow him to prepare for the bout in a totally different way.

“I haven’t got to cut 8-kilos overnight, that’s the biggest difference,” Pimblett said. “Because you can’t eat as many calories, you can’t train as much, obviously.

“As my mate, was telling me the other day, I couldn’t train properly because I didn’t have any glycogen in my muscles. It ended up killing me, I was struggling to train, never mind and get in there an actually fight.”

Pimblett was expected to return to action back at Cage Warriors 88 last October but he was forced to pull out of the bout after being hospitalized. Reflecting on the last few months, Pimblett admits that a lot has changes since then and he said that his approach to his career and has got a whole lot more serious in the last few month.

“A lot has happened since then,” Pimblett said. “I didn’t train straight after that, I had a month or two off. Then I was meant to fight Vladimir Sikic and then after that, leading into that fight, something happened and I couldn’t fight. When I couldn’t fight, that’s when I finally realized the opportunity I’ve got here and that I can’t just rely on my talent to get me through fights.

“It takes hard work to get where you want to be in this sport. I’ve finally realized that. The funniest thing is I became a world champion when I was only training 60% and partying 100%. Now there’s no partying anymore. Now I’m in the gym all day every day, I used to be there all day any way, but I’d just sit round and do nothing, chat pony and do f*** all. Now it’s completely different and I’m doing things right. I just can’t wait to go in there and shut a few wozzas up. It will be great.”

The Liverpudlian’s hospitalization led to plenty of gossip online. Pimblett explained what happened and revealed that he would’ve still fought had the SAFE MMA doctor Mark Banks not been the one treating him in hospital.

“It was mad,” Pimblett said. “I had to go to the hospital with what happened last year and people were saying I was lying about it and that, but there’s photo evidence of me lying in a hospital bed with Paul [Rimmer] there. Like, to be honest, I still would’ve fought that fight if Mark the doctor weren’t there working in the hospital and seeing me that way. I would’ve just carried on and fought any way.

“It was just concussion in the gym,” Pimblett went on to clarify. “Someone with a stupidly timed takedown when they knew that mat weren’t behind me. I landed on concrete and smashed my head open.”

With that now all the past, Pimblett says he’s a fighter reborn and that he’s now making all the right changes to bounce back strongly from only the second defeat of his career.

“It wasn’t even that though,” Pimblett said regarding his hospitalization. “I just woke up one day and realized the opportunity I had.

“Everything is different now. I’m just putting more effort in and I’m not just trying to lose weight now. I’m training hard now and putting it in like I should’ve been.”

Listen to the full episode here: