UFC 329 was supposed to be Conor McGregor's big comeback moment. Instead the entire weekend got hijacked by Paddy Pimblett, who choked out Benoit Saint-Denis in just 52 seconds to improve to 24-4 overall, and the internet hasn't stopped talking about him since. McGregor's return against Max Holloway ended just as fast, cut short by an apparent knee injury roughly a minute into the first round. One night, two wildly different outcomes, and only one guy walking away looking like a superstar.
“It's amazing how I do it, really, it is... This guy was in the Dozen! This guy was in our trivia tournament!" -Dave talking about how he bought stock early on Paddy the Baddy t.co/KcIWa6Q4Mr
Portnoy's not wrong to take a victory lap. Pimblett has been a Barstool fixture for years now, long before Saturday's finish made him look like the UFC's next real crossover star. And the chaos didn't stop when the cage door opened — Pimblett went straight from choking a guy unconscious to hunting down his vape and inhaling a slice of pepperoni backstage, which is about as on-brand as it gets for the Scouser.
“Where’s me vape?….we’re going to eat some food & get shitfaced” Paddy the Baddy does it all
Meanwhile the McGregor half of the card has turned into its own storyline, and not a flattering one. Reports point to a suspected torn ACL ending the Holloway fight almost as soon as it started, and the discourse has shifted fast from "is he hurt" to "is he ever fighting seriously again." Will Compton summed up where a lot of people landed by the end of the weekend, writing that he's officially done buying into McGregor as a legitimate title threat
Conor McGregor is done when it comes to truly competing to be the best It’s over I’ve thought about it since Saturday night and I’m officially done buying in
That skepticism has fueled the internet's favorite pastime: hypothetical matchmaking. The joke going around is that a Celtics-McGregor fight notification would "hit like crack," a bit built off nothing more than an old MMA-gym clip of a guy in a Celtics shirt sitting in a cage — not any real indication Joe Mazzulla and McGregor are headed anywhere near each other. It's a gag about how unpredictable and gettable McGregor suddenly looks, not a fight announcement.
That Joe Mazzulla vs. Conor McGregor fight notification is gonna hit like crack
Pimblett, on the other hand, can't stop winning even outside the octagon. Before UFC 329 he'd made a full bracket of World Cup predictions, and with Spain and Argentina reportedly lined up for the final the way he called it, he's sitting one result away from nailing the entire knockout stage. Add that to a first-round finish and a viral backstage vlog, and it's clear why Barstool keeps circling back to him — the guy is must-watch whether he's fighting, eating pizza, or filling out a soccer bracket.
Paddy the Baddy is one win away from correctly predicting the entire quarter finals & beyond What can’t this man do?
Where this all goes next is the fun part. Pimblett's name is already being thrown around for a step-up fight, McGregor's camp has to sort out the extent of the knee injury before anyone talks about his next octagon appearance, and the MMA world's attention has fully shifted toward the guy who spent fight week joking about retirement and then ended it in under a minute. For now, Pimblett's the story — and everyone from Portnoy on down is happy to keep riding it.