This weekend, Paddy Pimblett will return to the octagon at UFC 329, facing Benoît Saint-Denis in the co-main event beneath Conor McGregor’s long-awaited and controversial comeback. It will be Pimblett’s first fight since his unanimous-decision loss to Justin Gaethje earlier this year – his first defeat inside the UFC.

Last time we spoke to ‘The Baddy’, he was heading into that fight unbeaten in seven UFC appearances. Now, he’s coming back from the other side of a loss – something which, earlier in his career, contributed to one of the darkest periods of his life.

This time, though, things have been different.

Older, with children, a different mindset and years of work behind him, Pimblett says he never got close to the same headspace post-loss. Instead, he just went back to work.

That work currently means 20 to 30 miles of running each week, heavy lifting – although he’s actually had to ease off after putting on too much muscle – and dropping his food intake from around 3,500 to 4,000 calories a day to just 1,850 as the fight approaches.

We caught up with Pimblett to talk losing, lifting weights, Conor McGregor, Misfits boxing and the extreme process of making weight before he steps back into the octagon this weekend.

What’s changed since the last time we spoke?

Not much. I lost, so I’ve got to come back and right a few wrongs.

Last time you lost, you went through one of the worst periods of your life mentally. What was different this time?

I grew up a lot. I’m a lot older.

When I lost that fight, I was like 22, 23. I’m 31 now. I’ve got kids, and they push me on more than anything to be better and to do even more in this sport.

They are the biggest motivation that I have in this world.

Did you ever feel yourself going back towards that place after this loss?

No. I didn’t feel the way I used to feel.

After this fight, I never cried. It wasn’t an emotional one like that. It was just like, ‘I know I’m going to come back from this bigger and better and stronger.’

That’s just the way I am now.

Would Misfits boxing ever interest you?

No. But millions and millions and millions of pounds might tempt me.

You don’t want the Ibiza Final Boss on your undercard?

I’ve actually met him in Creamfields. He was actually a very nice kid.

How do you feel about being on the undercard for Conor McGregor’s comeback?

It’s unbelievable to be the co-main event underneath Conor on his comeback fight.

He left Cage Warriors just before I joined, and then I became the champion after he had the belt, so it’s nice to be able to be on the same card.

I’m looking forward to it. A lot of people think he’s going to get beat, but I personally think he wins.

Let’s drill down on your training. What would you tell your 15-year-old self to start doing earlier?

Start lifting weights.

I didn’t start lifting weights until, like, 2020. I’d been fighting professionally for seven or eight years and I used to just do MMA.

I’d go back and tell my younger self to start lifting weights a lot sooner, because it’ll prevent injuries and it’ll make you much stronger and faster than the training I was doing for years.

What does your conditioning look like now?

When I was young, I used to do a lot of hill sprints, but they’ve taken a bit of a back seat. I only do them every now and then.

Instead, I do lots of different things. SkiErg and medicine-ball stuff. I do a lot of practical things, like pulling and shadow boxing – things that you’ll actually use when you get into a fight.

What part of training would you still do even if you weren’t fighting?

Probably just running, to be honest.

I used to hate running. I’d just say, ‘Nah, I’m not doing that.’

But now I do anything from at least 20 miles a week up to 30 miles a week.

It helps with my weight loss. It helps keep my conditioning. Without running, I probably wouldn’t make weight.

What does your lifting look like at the minute?

I [usually] go heavy, but I’ve had to change it.

I’ve put too much muscle mass on in the past two months, so I’ve had to take the weights down and try and lose a bit of muscle to make weight.

I can’t believe how much I put on so fast.

So I’m upping the running, upping my reps a bit and lowering the weights.

You have a reputation around food. What do you think people get wrong about you?

People call me fat all the time.

But I think I’m the most disciplined fighter out there, because, yeah, I do enjoy my food. After the fight, I will go and eat all sorts because I’ve earned it.

I can deal with that because I’ve been disciplined for 10 weeks in fight camp and I’ve had to eat like 1,800 to 2,000 calories a day to make weight. I’d normally be eating three and a half, 4,000 every day.

For me, food is the best thing in the world.

Food is better than sex.

What are you actually eating in camp?

I’m eating the same things every day for 10 weeks.

Crunchy Nut in the morning with a banana, or eggs on a piece of toast. Then I have chicken and rice, or minced beef and sweet potato mash, or little bits of pasta with Cajun chicken.

I just rotate between those meals every day. It adds up to 1850 calories a day.

What do fighters still get wrong about making weight?

I still think it’s mad that people use saunas.

We’ve used hot baths for years.

We go no carbs for a full week, drink eight litres of water every day, flush all the salt out of your system. No salt, no carbs, then go nil by mouth.

Then some people still get in the sauna. But for years now, we’ve got in a hot bath, then get out, get under blankets and lie on the floor.

Then you just rinse and repeat.

I’ve lost like 15lb that way.

You’ve said before that the weight cut is more dangerous than the fight itself.

Yeah. More dangerous than getting punched in the head.

But that’s what we get paid for. We get paid to make weight. I get paid to stand on the scales at a certain weight.

Why not just move up a division?

Because the weight differences are stupid.

The difference is seven kilos, which is a full stone. It’s not like boxing where you can go up two or three pounds. Ours is 14 or 15lb.

If there was a division in between, it would probably be safer.

But someone is always going to do the weight cut and they’ll have an advantage, so you have to do it.

What happens after you make weight?

However many litres you’ve lost in water to make weight, you want to put that back in your body first.

I weigh in at 70.8kg, and within an hour I’ll be back to 75kg, 76kg, just after drinking water.

Then you have something to eat. You mainly want carbs after that because that whole week you’ve just been eating fat and protein, so you want to get as many carbs in as you possibly can.

On the Friday after the weigh-in, I’ll probably end up eating 8,000 calories that day. Something like that.

Maybe 10,000.

Everything’s clean. Rice, noodles, potatoes, pancakes. Carbs.

What do you weigh when you actually touch gloves?

At least 185lb.

So, around 84kg – roughly 13kg heavier than you weighed in?

Yeah.

We’ve just had a UFC event on the lawn of the Whitehouse – what do you reckon about getting a cage outside of 10 Downing Street? Red Arrows flying overhead. Do you think we’d ever get that here?

No. It’d just never happen, know what I mean? Government’s a bunch of pussies.

What’s on your mind going into the fight this weekend?

I’m going to smash this French fella.

With almost 18 years in the health and fitness space as a personal trainer, nutritionist, breath coach and writer, Andrew has spent nearly half of his life exploring how to help people improve their bodies and minds.    

As our fitness editor he prides himself on keeping Men’s Health at the forefront of reliable, relatable and credible fitness information, whether that’s through writing and testing thousands of workouts each year, taking deep dives into the science behind muscle building and fat loss or exploring the psychology of performance and recovery.   

Whilst constantly updating his knowledge base with seminars and courses, Andrew is a lover of the practical as much as the theory and regularly puts his training to the test tackling everything from Crossfit and strongman competitions, to ultra marathons, to multiple 24 hour workout stints and (extremely unofficial) world record attempts.   

 You can find Andrew on Instagram at @theandrew.tracey, or simply hold up a sign for ‘free pizza’ and wait for him to appear.