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How does Paddy Pimblett not have a Wikipedia page? Not since Justin Gaethje has MMA witnessed such an indignity.
The native of Liverpool, England is new to the UFC, but not to the sport's championship echelons. Pimblett first drew eyeballs years ago as the featherweight belt holder at Cage Warriors, the well-regarded European show that incubated Conor McGregor, Michael Bisping and a slew of others. The blond-mopped Pimblett quickly gained a following with his nose for the finish and flamboyance around the audiovisual equipment.
This Saturday, in his second UFC contest, Pimblett faces the not-very-distinguished Rodrigo Vargas in his quest for the white whale that is Wikipedia. It happens on the main card of UFC Fight Night 204, going down from O2 Arena in swinging London.
On grand display Saturday is the ever-active world of British MMA. The card features no fewer than 11 fighters who are from and/or based in the United Kingdom. The London crowd will be over the top. The energy will reach Spinal Tap levels. These fighters will badly want to show out for their compatriots.
He's a work in progress, but if he can string more wins together, Pimblett has the makings of a future MMA celebrity. But who are some other UK denizens to watch at this event? Outstanding play-by-play commentator and proper Englishman John Gooden, who will have the call Saturday, is excluded from consideration but nevertheless deserves a shoutout, which, mission accomplished.
Here are three UK fighters to keep a close eye on in London.
(Note the event's early start time for the United States, with prelims set to start at 1 pm Eastern.)
Tom Aspinall
Record: 11-2
Division: Heavyweight
Age: 28
Fighting Out Of: Liverpool, England
Opponent: Alexander Volkov (34-9)
DraftKings Moneyline: -130 (bet $100 to win $76.92)
Tom Aspinall seems like the type of fighter who never stops being overjoyed by the prospect of beating people up for money.
Lucky for him, then, that he's good at it. Damn good. He might be the best British fighter out there, full stop.
Aspinall, who faces Volkov in the evening's main event, is adept at the art of punching people senseless. He hits hard, he hits often and he hits with bad intentions. Nine of his 11 wins are knockouts, and he has yet to go the distance in a 4-0 UFC tenure, three of which were knockouts.
One assumes this can only be aided by his training with a boxer named Tyson Fury.
Aspinall's non-knockout UFC win doubled as his biggest to date, over the ageless Andrei Arlovski. It was a close contest until the second round, when an Aspinall double-leg led to a rear-naked choke. All in the span of seven seconds.
To reach those numbers, you have to be more than a brute. Aspinall is an impressive athlete. For a guy who goes 6'5" and 247 pounds, Aspinall is remarkably light on his feet, with stellar hand speed to match.
He overwhelms you with pressure and volume. Aspinall landed 7.19 strikes per minute in those four bouts. You need five fights to qualify for the UFC leaderboard, but if he were eligible today, he'd rank second among active heavyweights. We'll see where he sits Monday when he'll be qualified for the leaderboard.
The 6'7" Volkov is a "tall" order for any heavyweight with an 8-3 record in the UFC. Remember that leaderboard? Volkov ranks third with 5.2 strikes landed per minute.
So, yeah. It's the main event for a reason. This is a career-defining fight for Aspinall, win or lose. It's his first time fighting in the UK for the UFC. Fireworks are expected. We'll see what he delivers.
Paddy Pimblett
Record: 17-3
Division: Lightweight
Age: 27
Fighting Out Of: Liverpool, England
Opponent: Rodrigo Vargas (12-4)
DraftKings Moneyline: -590
Yes, Pimblett is flashy. When was the last time you saw a fighter pass out wigs of his hairstyle at a media event? But there's plenty of promise behind the style.
In his UFC debut, fighting at lightweight against Luigi Vendramini, Pimblett's frame was visibly more filled out compared to his rangier featherweight days in Cage Warriors. About halfway through the first, Vendramini reached back and slammed a left hand across Pimblett's jaw. But his deceptively sturdy chin kept him upright. With Pimblett losing the round, suddenly he landed his own offense. A right hook wobbled Vendramini, and Pimblett blitzed forward with massive lefts and rights. No hesitation or overthinking; he smelled blood, he charged, he got his man.
"I like getting into a firefight, I like a fistfight," he told UFC.com's Thomas Gerbasi. "It's entertaining for people and it's mad to say, but I enjoy getting punched. It's not something that I shy away from. I enjoy taking a shot and I enjoy giving a shot."
His chin is a clear asset, but his striking is not his strong suit.
"The funniest thing about it," Pimblett told Gerbasi, "is that people think I'm a striker now. And I'm not. I'm far from it."
Pimblett is primarily a grappler with seven submission wins, even if you wouldn't know it from that debut. Outside of a single-leg shot that never went anywhere, Pimblett didn't try hard to ply his ground game against Vendramini. That should change.
There are issues. For one, he's eminently hittable, often neglecting to keep his chin down and his hands up. Granted, it was one contest, but against Vendramini, he absorbed 5.66 strikes per minute with a 50 percent strike defense rate. Those are not good numbers.
But it's nothing anyone should have to worry about this weekend. As the moneyline suggests, this is a showcase fight for Pimblett. The UFC knows full well what it has here, and it won't look the gift horse of Pimblett's charisma in the mouth. Even if it's not his strength, Pimblett may seek another firefight for maximum showmanship.
Jack Shore
Record: 15-0
Division: Bantamweight
Age: 27
Fighting Out Of: Abertillery, Wales
Opponent: Timur Valiev (18-2, 1 NC)
DraftKings Moneyline: -105
This nod could have gone to Arnold Allen or someone else on the main card, but where's the fun in that?
Instead, we'll give it to the up-and-coming lad from Wales. Defeating Valiev on Saturday could very well be his one-way ticket out of the prelims.
Shore is a grappler. He times takedowns well and is constantly going for the back, locking in the body triangle, seeking the choke.
But unlike someone like Pimblett, whose skill set tilts toward one area, Shore has a broader array of skills. Chief among them is a lethal jab.
"I know that if you're sitting on the end of my jab, and you let me find the range, then they won't get past it," Shore said at a news conference following his win in September over Liudvik Sholinian. "So it's definitely one of my top weapons.
"I think in my four fights I've shown how well-rounded I am," he continued. "I'm not just going out there and mauling [opponents]. I've had back-and-forth wrestling battles, I've had rounds of boxing and kickboxing, so I think I've shown I can go anywhere, and I've shown I'm the real deal."
Valiev is his toughest test to date, and it's not close. Hard as nails, Valiev is a suffocating grappler. To illustrate, in a 15-minute fight with Martin Day, he controlled 11:19 of the action. He's highly skilled and awfully strong for his size, so there hasn't been much anyone can do about it.
As dumb as it might seem to bet against any Dagestani Russian fighter based on their incredible, ongoing run of dominance, this is a winnable fight for Shore. He won't be intimidated on the ground and might even be the better athlete. We'll see what kind of work that jab can do. Even though he's a slight underdog (Valiev is -115), Shore seems like an interesting play to bring a W to the UK. If these British fighters and their colleagues have a say, it will be one of many.
Moneyline odds accurate as of Thursday.
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It's been billed as a clash of "bitter rivals."
This Saturday, in the main event of UFC 272, Colby Covington will battle Jorge Masvidal in a five-round welterweight fight.
It hasn't always been this way. They used to be best friends.
"We always had this picture-perfect dream," Covington told B/R ahead of UFC 272. "We even talked about it. We're like, 'Man, if we ever do have to fight each other, let's keep it cordial.'"
Covington met Masvidal when he was fresh out of college. Buoyed by an extremely successful wrestling career at Oregon State University, he decided to pursue professional mixed martial arts and ultimately started training at American Top Team in South Florida, Masvidal's longtime headquarters.
"I was testing out a couple gyms after I left college and got my degree and became Division I All-American," he said. "I was like 'I want to be a professional fighter. I want to change my life, go into mixed martial arts.' So I was testing out a couple gyms and I ran across him."
In 2022, Covington speaks as though he instantly loathed Masvidal. However, the pair got along so well that they not only decided to train together constantly, but share an apartment.
"I trained with him, and he just fell in love with me," Covington said. "He was like, 'Dude, I need to be with you every day. Let's be best friends. I need this wrestling. I need this pace. I'll do anything. Let's live together. Let's make this work, man, and I'll try and show you some striking, but you show me wrestling and you help evolve my game.'"
Thing started off well, but Covington claims he began to feel like he was being used.
"It just ended up becoming a one-sided relationship," he said. "He would just use me to help him with his wrestling and wrestling defense and help for his camps, but he didn't care about my career. It was just about him and his career."
For Covington, things finally boiled over in 2017, when he and Masvidal both had a fight with submission wizard Demian Maia. Masvidal fought the Brazilian first, flaunting some slick submission defense but ultimately losing a split decision. Covington was next and mercilessly smothered his opponent to a clear-cut unanimous win.
"It was when he lost to Demian Maia to get a title shot," Covington said. "The UFC was like 'Hey, you beat Demian Maia we'll give you a title shot.' He wanted that title shot really bad. He lost to Demian Maia, and I ended up fighting Demian Maia the next fight. I went out there and left Demian Maia in a pool of his own blood, beat his ass in his home country.
"I just remember coming home and all the attention and the media was around me and [Masvidal] didn't like it," he added. "He's an egomaniac. He didn't like that I was getting all this attention."
It's worth noting at this point that much of the media attention Covington received after the Maia fight centered around the comments he made in his post-fight interview. He unleashed a vicious tirade, calling the Brazilian fans in attendance "filthy animals" and has since claimed that speech saved his career.
Covington doubled down in the years that followed, becoming an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump and, at one point, referring to the Black Lives Matter movement as "terrorists" and "criminals." Unsurprisingly, several of his UFC peers took issue with that racist remark.
But in Covington's side of the story, it was Masvidal who was the toxic influence.
"As soon as I started passing him up, doing better than him, that's when he turns his back on me and back-stabs me," he said.
"He just hurt and set my career back a lot of time."
But Masvidal has lobbed some very specific accusations at Covington. He has repeatedly accused his former teammate of refusing to pay one of their coaches, which he says "fast-forwarded" the decay of their friendship. The coach in question has corroborated this story.
"I would see signs in the way he treated his family, the way he talked about his sister, the way he talked about his mom," Masvidal told MMA Junkie's Danny Segura. "I was already like, 'Let me start separating myself from this guy little by little.' And then, bam, before I could even fully [separate], he betrayed my coach, didn't pay him the money that was agreed upon, and I knew since then I'm gonna hurt this guy."
Covington, however, is adamant he's blameless.
"I have no regrets," he said. "This is not my fault. People can believe what they want to believe. His side of the story is completely different. It's not true. It's not facts. Don't believe anything Jorge says. He's a liar. He can't ever be a man of his word and just be honest. I'm honest. I know the real side of the story.
"That guy is a piece of s--t," he added. "As soon as I was free from him, that's when I really started having success and really started to grow into what I am today, and that's the best fighter in the world."
One way or the other, the two fighters now hate each other—either that, or they've conspired for an incredibly elaborate grift. Covington has left American Top Team and relocated to MMA Masters, just a 30-minute drive south on I-75. And when he speaks about the imminent opportunity to put a hurting on his former teammate, he sounds like he's foaming at the mouth.
"He hasn't just back-stabbed me," he said. "I know a lot of people want to see him pay and I'm glad I can make him pay on Saturday night.
"I want to make this look dominant. And more importantly, I want to make him squeal."
Grudge matches happen all the time in MMA—there's even another one on the UFC 272 bill. More often than not, the beef is squashed when the fight is over. The two fighters shake hands and hug it out and move on to more important things.
It will be very surprising if that's the scene that unfolds at the end of UFC 272.
"This is a blood feud," Covington said. "This is so, so deep. This isn't a manufactured beef like some of these fighters try to have. The UFC's never had a fight like this in the history of the company. It's irreconcilable. We're not coming back together as friends. We'll never shake hands. This will never be over.
"If we come face-to-face anywhere, it's a free pay-per-view."
Amid all the pre-fight intensity, it's easy to forget that a friendship was lost. The grim state of the world has turned many of us into cold, unfeeling robots, but when you really think about it, that's kind of sad.
Covington, despite all of his virulent trash talking, seems to recognize this, admitting a win over Masvidal will feel "bittersweet."
"I just never imagined it being like this," he said.
"But I'm excited. I'm really pumped up for this fight. I've never been more excited for a fight than I am for this fight."
Now, Locks of the Week must rest.
After a wonderful college football season—one that ended the year on a heater—the sport must now slumber before things get weird again.
With that said, we will not (and cannot) go quietly. While there won't be any games outside of spring scrimmages until fall, we can still get a jump on the futures markets.
Win totals, conference odds and other betting opportunities will be unveiled in the coming months, so, for now, our options are somewhat limited. Have no fear, though; we're still ready to make the most of it.
This particular sendoff focuses on the national championship and the Heisman odds for the 2022-23 season. I've targeted a favorite I like and also a selection down the board for both DraftKings and FanDuel.
As a disclaimer, these picks can change over the coming months. Injuries, transfer portal additions, roster adjustments and more will undoubtedly swing these decisions, but it also won't stop us from making them now.
Before we kick things back up in the summer, here is our last Locks of the Week. Happy hunting.
Ohio State (+550) to Win the National Championship at DraftKings
The Buckeyes are not the chalk. That honor belongs to Alabama (+225), and understandably so.
Ohio State also is behind Georgia (+270). But at more than 5/1, I am more than happy to back the Buckeyes.
This offense, of course, will say goodbye to some enormously gifted players. Wideouts Chris Olave and Garrett Wilson are off to the NFL. While these are massive voids to fill, we saw in the Rose Bowl how equipped Ohio State is to fill them.
Wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba is poised to be the best wideout in the nation, and his eye-popping 347-yard performance in the Rose Bowl is a sign of things to come. Throw in Marvin Harrison Jr., who scored three touchdowns in that game, and the offense is likely to be as explosive—if not more so—once again.
The center of it all is quarterback C.J. Stroud. More on him in a bit.
The fact that he's handing the ball off to TreVeyon Henderson, one of the best young running backs in the sport, is yet another luxury.
But where I believe this team will improve most is on defense. The hiring of defensive coordinator Jim Knowles is significant, and the pieces Ohio State has to work with across the defensive line give him a solid foundation.
The season begins against Notre Dame and ends at home against Michigan. In between, there are some quality matchups, including road trips at Michigan State and Penn State and a home game against Wisconsin.
Still, it's plenty manageable.
I would be shocked if Ohio State is not a playoff team next year. When it comes to betting on teams to win the national title, it has to start with the Buckeyes.
Miami (+6000) to Win the National Championship at DraftKings
I know, I know.
A lot—and I mean A LOT—has to happen for this one to go right. Let's begin there, though their 60/1 odds should be a fine explanation itself. It would be somewhat shocking to see Miami take this kind of leap in Year 1 under Mario Cristobal, but I believe there are enough interesting pieces to give it a look.
The Hurricanes enter the season having won five of the final six games to close out the year. They then went and hired Cristobal, who should provide an immediate surge.
He, in turn, brought in Kevin Steele to run his defense and Josh Gattis to run his offense. These were excellent hires, and I expect the returns to be somewhat instant.
Why I am willing to give this a shot, however, is because of quarterback Tyler Van Dyke. The glimpses I saw from him during his freshman season were superb, and the numbers were as well.
Van Dyke threw for at least 300 yards in his final six games, and he scored at least three touchdowns in all of those games. The schedule is conducive for more huge games throughout the year.
Yes, Miami plays at Texas A&M and Clemson on the road, and both teams could start the season inside the top eight next year. But the rest looks mighty reasonable.
A leap, while unlikely, isn't out of the realm of possibility. When you dig for value, you're bound to find some issues. Miami has plenty, but the momentum feels very real.
C.J. Stroud (+350) to Win the Heisman at FanDuel
Despite looking a little overwhelmed early last season, C.J. Stroud accounted for 44 touchdowns and only six interceptions. It was a fabulous year for the Ohio State QB, who is poised to significantly improve on his first year as a starter.
For the Big Ten and the rest of college football, that is a terrifying thought.
I've already explained why I love Ohio State heading into next year, and this Heisman pick should come as no surprise. While the national champion and Heisman winner don't always align—just look at Georgia this past season—they're often linked closely together. (Alabama QB Bryce Young, who won the Heisman, was awfully close.)
Yes, Stroud lost his top two wideouts, but he should have a wealth of capable targets to throw to next fall. He also plays in a system designed to post huge numbers. And the schedule, as referenced, should allow him to have games much like the one we saw against Michigan State.
In that game, Stroud threw for nearly 400 yards and six touchdowns…in the first half.
The team, the talent, the schedule and the player—all of the pieces are in place for Stroud to be a finalist for the award once again. Only this time, he'll walk away as the winner.
Will Anderson Jr. (+5000) to Win the Heisman at FanDuel
Yes, I want this to happen.
I will not ever lie to you in this space.
Seeing a defensive player win the Heisman would bring me tremendous joy. And seeing a player as deserving as Will Anderson Jr. win the award would somehow make the moment that much sweeter.
Anderson is the best player in the sport. At this point, I'm not sure it's all too controversial to make that declaration. But since he plays linebacker, he'll have to work harder to win the Heisman.
His 33.5 tackles for loss—11.5 more than any player in the country—were not enough to win it. Neither were his 17.5 sacks. (Also, the best in college football.)
While Anderson finished fifth in the Heisman voting, he will return to Alabama with more hype than any defensive player in recent memory. He will once again need to post gaudy statistics to compete for the award, but 50/1 still feels like tremendous value.
There is a movement building amongst Heisman voters for a defensive player to win. That is not just a hunch; I've spoken to many of them who are still stunned that Anderson didn't win or even secure an invite to New York City.
It's a matter of time before a defensive player wins for the first time since Charles Woodson took home the hardware in 1997. Anderson will start the year as the most talented player in the sport playing for the nation's premier college football program.
As long as Alabama wins all or most of its games, which it should, Anderson should be in striking distance. It will be tough for him to post the kind of numbers he did last year, but he might not have to.
The buzz is building. The legend is growing. Grab 50/1 while you can.
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