At age 28, with a decade and 23 fights of professional experience, Paddy Pimblett was decidedly mid-tier at best for a UFC LW. Since then he hasn't changed camps, hasn't changed coaches, hasn't suddenly developed a great out-of-camp diet and work ethic, hasn't displayed new skills, and hasn't generally done anything that would allow a fighter with that kind of experience who's already hit his athletic peak to make a sudden leap forward in ability. He's fought three corpses and looked good doing so, but that doesn't change the fact that essentially no fighter has or will ever made a big leap forward in ability under the circumstances of the last couple of years of Paddy's career absent significant chemical enhancement, and even there, Paddy's out-of-camp regimen would limit the effectiveness of PEDs.
Maybe Gaethje's at the end of his road and Paddy takes this fight, but that would be almost entirely about Gaethje getting old. Paddy is still the Paddy who lost four out of five rounds to Jordan Leavitt and Jared Gordon, sneaking in a nice second round finish against Leavitt. Pretending otherwise is fantasy.
