Meet Paddy Pimblett: The Beatles-mopped snowflake hater who has clashed with Liana Jojua & says he’s UFC’s ‘signing of the decade’

Hailing from Liverpool in the UK, Paddy Pimblett has just signed with the UFC, has claimed to be "like a fifth Beatle" and has landed himself in hot water with Georgian fighters Liana Jojua and Guram Kutaleladze over an outburst.

The featherweight, aged 26, first made his name fighting for Cage Warriors, with whom he put together an impressive 15-3 record. 

On their CW122 card a fortnight ago, the brash Brit finished his opponent in the first round with a rear-naked choke, then demanded UFC president Dana White give his boss Graham Boylan a call. 

Screaming down the camera in an unmistakable Scouse accent, Pimblett said, "Come on, lad! Give him a ring".

That pivotal phone conversation came just two days later. Full of confidence, Pimblett remarked that it was "inevitable".

"It was always going to happen and now it's finally happened," he added. 

Referring to himself as White's "biggest signing" of the year, decade and "since the millennium", the blonde brawler has drawn comparisons to Conor McGregor and has made similar cocky predictions while tipping himself to become a future UFC title holder and take over the championship.

With 44,000 followers on Twitter and 85,000 on Instagram, his sizeable fanbase is growing. And he already claims to have the best walkout in MMA to a banging house remix of Basement Jaxx's Where's Your Head At, usually heard at the Liverpool Echo Arena.

Nodding to a rise in stardom akin to Beatlemania, Pimblett noted that he looks "like a fifth Beatle", which he believes is "even more perfect". He has eyes for bigger venues such as Liverpool FC's Anfield – where he envisages himself co-headlining a UFC pay-per-view card with fellow Scouser Darren Till.

Planning to dominate featherweight then move up to lightweight, as McGregor did, Pimblett claims to "fight like a little weirdo" and have his own style.

He is "never in a boring fight, win or lose," and has caught the eye of the legendary Chael Sonnen on the way up too.

"Who is Paddy the Baddy?" asked the former UFC middleweight and light heavyweight challenger on Instagram recently. 

"The whole world will know soon enough," answered the youngster. 

In another trait shared with the likes of McGregor, Till and Sonnen, Pimblett also courts controversy and has landed himself in hot water just days after signing on the dotted line with his new employers. 

Before the weekend, UFC featherweight Liana Jojua pointed out how Pimblett had previously trash-talked one of the championship's fighters, Guram Kutateladze, on Twitter by saying: "Lad, how stupid are these Georgians, man? No wonder the Russians terrorize their lives."

"If this guy thinks that this is somehow funny or appropriate, then I don't know what to say," Jojua pointed out.

"My grandparents, just like a lot of other innocent people, were killed during the war. I feel ashamed that this [sic] kind of people represents our sport," 

Pimblett later told a critic: "I’m not being racist to Georgians at all. Jesus Christ, everybody is a snowflake now a days." For him, though, no publicity is bad publicity. 

"I've got people who love me, want to watch me and see me fight," he says. "But there are also people who hate me and want to watch me to see me get beaten up.

"They all watch me, though – and that's all dollar signs."