Paddy Pimblett and Molly McCann both secured emphatic victories at UFC London, with both finishing their opponents in dramatic style. The Liverpool fighters were both on the main card, with McCann becoming the first British woman to fight on a main card in UFC history, while Pimblett once again elevated his stock exponentially with another first-round win.
The two have been close friends and teammates for almost 10 years, training at Next Generation MMA in Liverpool – and now both being victorious twice fighting on the same UFC card.
McCann fought first at UFC London, coming off the back of her impressive win over Ji Yeon Kim last time out, hoping to continue that momentum against Luana Carolina. The London crowd gave her an incredible reception as she made her way to the ring before going on to dominate the first round. Meatball Molly kept up that pace in the second, before Carolina came back strongly in the third. Then, McCann hit Carolina with a spinning back elbow out of the clinch, knocking her out.
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Around 45 minutes later, Pimblett produced a similar stunning performance. Like his first fight against Luigi Vendramini last year, the Baddy took a big shot to the face, with Vargas going for the take down. However, Pimblett was able to regroup, whilst then excellently executing a Judo hip toss and before using his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to get in position before locking in a rear naked choke, locking it in tight giving Vargas no choice but to tap.
After his debut victory last year, Pimblett signed a seven-figure deal with American sports media company Barstool Sports – a deal which sees him make much more money than what he's earning in his UFC fights. And after seeing Molly rise alongside him, Barstool CEO, multi-millionaire Dave Portnoy revealed he has also signed McCann – alongside Paddy.
That's something that is important to both Pimblett and McCann – seeing each other thrive and enjoying each other's success'.
Last week, Pimblett told the Liverpool Echo: "Her success is massive to me. To see her winning – the fact we can both sit there be happy and celebrate a win together, there's nothing like it – it's a family business to us."
And those feelings are certainly reciprocated by McCann, who names Pimblett his 'little big brother'.
McCann told Sky Sports: "He is my little big brother and he gives me confidence and an edge and he makes me believe. I can do it without him but it's a lot better doing it with him. Just seeing his reaction when I won and then I got to sit with Dana White when he won and I snuck in the cage and got to share that moment together.
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"You could just see how much it meant. We are a bit different and we will be like Marmite, you will love us or hate us and that's fine, everybody is entitled to their opinion, it doesn't matter to us, we're just out here living our best life. When we both got the £50,000 bonus, on the way home I was like 'I always envisioned this but I never thought it would really come true'. And he went 'I did, I know where we're going' and sometimes it's good to hear him reaffirm."
UFC president Dana White confirmed to the media that he will bring an event back to the UK later this year, after admitting he had the most fun at an event in years in the capital.
