Former two-weight UFC world champion Henry Cejudo has argued Paddy Pimblett should fight Conor McGregor next.
The legendary fighter, who was the original two-division champion, has been out for over a year with a broken leg, and has only recently begun training in earnest for his return to the ring. In that time he has nearly dropped out of the top 15 at lightweight, while Pimblett has been signed to the UFC and fought three times, winning all three by stoppage.
While the Scouse fighter has had it easier than McGregor did early in his career; facing Luigi Vendramini, Rodrigo Vargas and Jordan Leavitt as opposed to Marcus Brimmage, Max Holloway and Diego Brandao, he has risen to prominence just as fast. Already the UFC have put him on main cards in his home country, and given him a big money deal.
And Cejudo feels that he is now ready for a ranked opponent, and with McGregor having dropped down to No.11 that could be the match-up to make. Speaking on the Triple C and Schmo show , he made the case for doing McGregor vs Pimblett next.
"Give him Conor McGregor," Cejudo said. "I think that would be a good fight because they're both not necessarily the elite but they can fight each other. I think Paddy would really give Conor McGregor some problems because he's a scrapper.
"McGregor's not that big, McGregor's what around 5'8" (he's 5'9")? He's not that tall, to me he's not even a big 155lb fighter, to me he's still a featherweight. That's how I see him, yeah he's carrying more weight but that's the stuff that's costing him from winning because he's just carrying too much weight."
Both Pimblett and McGregor have fought at lightweight and featherweight, and they share the honour of being Cage Warriors champions at 145lb. But they are also known to enjoy themselves between fights, and are almost never going to make the featherweight limit again.
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But Cejudo feels, having himself moved between weight classes at flyweight and bantamweight, that McGregor needs to be cutting to be truly elite. He argues that with his resources and seemingly unlimited bank balance, the Irishman should be able to get a team in place who will be able to get him back to his athletic peak.
"When you're carrying too much weight that just equals to fatigue," Cejudo explained. He should go back down to 155, and in future he should go down to 145lb. With all of that money that he has, with all the resources he could have he still doesn't really know how to formulate his structure with the right team in order for him to become a world champion.
"There are so many smart people out there that with all that money he has, he's not finding that right team to really take him to a whole other level. I'm talking about him going back down to 145lb. If you made it once, you can make it again. Otherwise 155 because 170 is really not his weight, that's ridiculous."
