Paddy Pimblett has taken exception to TJ Dillashaw’s claim that the Liverpudlian will ‘never’ be a UFC champion, hitting out at the former title holder for testing positive for a performance-enhancing substance.
Pimblett has become one of the UFC’s fastest-rising stars over the last year, and the lightweight has also become notorious for significantly gaining weight between fights.
Dillashaw, meanwhile, is a former two-time bantamweight champion, whose second reign ended in 2019 when the American tested positive for EPO – an injectible performance-enhancing drug.
That incident led Dillashaw to receive a two-year suspension. Upon his return to the Octagon last summer, the 36-year-old won a narrow decision against Cory Sandhagen.
Dillashaw, who has not competed since, told The Schaub Show of Pimblett’s weight fluctuation: “He’s just loving diabetes. That’s like a recipe for destroying your body.
“I guess there’s one thing when I look at it: They can promote him the right way and do all this good stuff, and he’s got some stuff to grow and get into the higher echelons of the UFC, but if you keep that same work ethic that he has now, he’ll never be a champion.
“You can’t have that down-time like that. You can’t get that fat, you can’t get out of shape. It just proves the dedication to what you need to do.
“I’m not trying to pound on him or anything, but that’s something I think he’s going to have to figure out with age. He’s young. It’s a full-time job, this isn’t just wanting to be a fighter; you have to be a fighter.”
Pimblett has fired back, however, taking to Twitter to bring up Dillashaw’s positive test for EPO.
“Is this fella messin, @TJDillashaw used to sell tee shirts with his fat face on it saying ‘fat Tyler’ on when he came out of camp,” the 27-year-old wrote.
“Don’t forget ur own past u sausage, Cheating little juice head [would] never have won a belt without them steroids, u f***ing mushroom.”
Pimblett last competed in March, submitting Rodrigo Vargas at UFC London to make it two first-round wins from two fights in the UFC.
The Liverpudlian is scheduled to enter the Octagon in the English capital again in July, when he faces Jordan Leavitt at the next edition of UFC London.
