Paddy Pimblett says he always believed Conor McGregor would return to the UFC following his 2021 losses to Dustin Poirier, arguing no fighter of McGregor’s stature would want to end their career the way that chapter closed.
Pimblett spoke to TNT Sports ahead of UFC 329, where he faces Benoit Saint Denis in the co-main event alongside McGregor’s welterweight rematch with Max Holloway on July 11 in Las Vegas.
I always thought he was going to come back. I don’t think he’d want to end his career on the loss against Poirier, the way he broke his leg and stuff. I don’t think he would want to finish his career on that.
Pimblett added that he would have made the same decision himself.
He wants to. I wouldn’t want to finish my career on that, so I can understand another fighter not wanting to.
McGregor lost back-to-back fights to Poirier in 2021 — a second-round TKO in Abu Dhabi and then a devastating leg break that ended their trilogy in the first round at UFC 264. The injury kept him out of competition for five years.
Pimblett himself suffered his first UFC loss in January, dropping a decision to Justin Gaethje in an interim lightweight title fight at UFC 324.