Alexander Volkanovski weighs in on Paddy's HUGE weight cuts: "It's terrible!"

Alexander Volkanovski believes that the huge weight cuts won’t help Paddy Pimblett in the long run.

Paddy “The Baddy” has emerged as one of the UFC’s biggest stars since his debut in September of last year, in no small part due to his three straight finishes in the octagon. The Liverpudlian competed as a bantamweight during the early stages of his career, but later moved up to featherweight where he became Cage Warriors champion. Presently he’s a lightweight, clocking in at 155 lbs on the scale before his fights.

The British prospect is a proud foodie and has made it clear that he’s not interested in following a strict diet plan all year round. It should come as no surprise then that he has a tendency to balloon in weight after his fights, which has led to criticism from, among others, UFC president Dana White.

Despite going up two weightclasses since his pro debut, “The Baddy” has had some huge weight cuts in the lead-up to his UFC fights. Just weeks before fighting in July, Pimblett claimed to be almost 200 lbs, just shy of the light heavyweight limit of 205 lbs. However, Pimblett managed to shed the pounds for his fight against Jordan Leavitt at UFC London, and later sent a crystal clear message to all the “fatshamers” when he pulled down his shorts during the weigh-ins and mooned the cameras!

The number one ranked pound-for-pound fighter and UFC featherweight champion Volkanovski can relate to Pimblett’s weight issues, since he himself had the same problem earlier in his career.

“I used to do that,” Volkanovski told The AllStar. “Back in the days when you used to talk to me, when I would go and people see me win the PXC world title (at) featherweight. I’d go back to Thailand, not even two weeks later, and people are looking at me like, ‘How do you look like that? You were just here. What?! It doesn’t make sense.’”

“I used to weigh in at 65.8 (kgs), 145 (lbs). And within the week… so, next weekend, 86 kilograms. I used to go from 145 to 190 in one week. It’s not healthy. It’s terrible. It blows my mind how his head just balloons like that; it’s quite funny.”

“Look, honestly, I hear about people fat shaming him and all that type of stuff, but I think there are a lot of people that probably care for his health as well because it ain’t healthy. I know because I’ve been in the same position.”

“The Great” Volkanovski aims to go up to lightweight himself and challenge for the title next year. Before he gets his shot at a second belt, however, he needs to wait for his turn, as Charles Oliveira and Islam Makhachev fight for the vacant title at UFC 280 the 22nd of October!