Paddy Pimblett has decided the UFC lightweight title is coming to him. According to ESPN, the Englishman said becoming a UFC champion is his destiny, which is a big word for a man who came up short the last time he fought for the belt.
To be fair to him, the résumé gives him room to talk. Pimblett is 24-4 and opened his UFC run with seven straight wins, a streak that included Tony Ferguson and Michael Chandler. Neither of those guys was in his prime when Pimblett got them, and his critics bring that up every chance they get. A win is still a win, and the streak earned him a shot at Justin Gaethje at UFC 324.
He lost that one. He also went to war with a lightweight legend and showed the kind of heart that keeps people buying pay-per-views, so the loss didn’t sink him.
The bounce-back is what’s driving all this destiny talk. At UFC 329, Benoit Saint-Denis came in red hot, riding four straight wins, all by finish, with a title shot basically waiting if he got a fifth. Seconds into the fight, the Frenchman put his head somewhere he shouldn’t have, Pimblett grabbed it, and that was the end of BSD’s 2026 title plans. That’s the kind of result that drags a guy right back into the conversation.
Where the line actually stands
Here’s the problem. Pimblett sits at No. 5 in the latest UFC Meta Rankings, and the four names above him all have real claims.
Gaethje (28-5) holds the belt after a dominant upset of Ilia Topuria at UFC Freedom 250, handing the former two-division champ the first loss of his career. Topuria (17-1) sits at No. 1. Arman Tsarukyan (24-3) is No. 2, riding six straight wins, the latest a knockout of Mauricio Ruffy at UFC 331 that Yahoo Sports’ ranking writeup called the win that made him undeniable. Charles Oliveira (36-11) is No. 3 and holds the BMF title after he dominated Max Holloway on the mat at UFC 326. Holloway (27-9) rounds out the top four.
Behind Pimblett, the young guys are coming fast. Quillan Salkilld (13-1) is No. 6 after choking out Mateusz Gamrot, and Tom Nolan jumped five spots to No. 7 this week after his TKO of Renato Moicano on Oct. 31.
Pimblett has already started planning for the rematch he wants. A Yahoo Sports headline this week said he vowed to make one major change in a potential second fight with Gaethje, though what that change is wasn’t laid out there.
Danny’s take
I’ll always take a fighter who says exactly what he thinks over one who mumbles about taking it one fight at a time. Pimblett believes it, and the Saint-Denis finish was legit. But Gaethje has already beaten him, Topuria needs somewhere to go after his first loss, and Tsarukyan has spent years being his own worst enemy and has finally stopped. If I’m booking the next title fight, Tsarukyan gets the call. Destiny might have to wait for Pimblett to run through Oliveira or Holloway first, and he’d have to beat a grappler who just dominated Max Holloway for 25 minutes’ worth of trouble.
