Why Paddy Pimblett Was ‘Forced’ to Change His Hairstyle For UFC Fights

Paddy Pimblett’s interesting reasoning for switching up his hairstyle in the Octagon has resurfaced ahead of his UFC return in Miami this weekend.

The lightweight MMA star from Liverpool was famously known for rocking an old-school long mop-top hairstyle during his Cage Warriors and early UFC bouts. After making his UFC debut four years ago, Pimblett would go on to win his first three fights by stoppage, before being made to go the distance with Jared Gordon at UFC 282 in December 2022.

Despite getting the unanimous points win over Gordon thanks to the judges’ scorecards, a significant portion of MMA viewers felt Gordon was the deserved winner of that tight lightweight contest. The close nature of this fight alerted Pimblett and inspired him to make a drastic change to his fighting appearance, as he believed his hair was becoming detrimental to him. 12 months after defeating Gordon, he entered his fight with Tony Ferguson at UFC 296 with braided cornrows that were pushed back tightly, catching fight fans by surprise.

Pimblett was made to go the full five rounds for a second successive UFC fight, but his unanimous points victory was much more plain sailing and no one questioned the legitimacy of his win. Speaking after the win over Ferguson at the time, the lightweight star addressed his drastic hairstyle change, explaining it was to do with people believing him to be more jeopardised than he was during fights.

He stated: “I’ve done it because I’m sick of getting hit with little punches and left hooks and people would be, ‘He’s rocked! He’s rocked!’ Like, nah, my hair just moved. I’m not rocked at all.”

Michael Chandler and Paddy Pimblett’s professional MMA records (as of 10/04/25)
	Michael Chandler	Paddy Pimblett
Fights	32	25
Wins	23	22
Losses	9	3

Last summer in Manchester, the Merseyside-born star saw himself return to delivering devastating stoppages, as he defeated King Green in just one round at UFC 304 after implementing a triangle choke. The opening-round win saw Pimblett rock his new braided hairstyle for the second fight in a row.

After recent success with it, Pimblett will likely sport the tightly braided hairstyle once again for this weekend’s UFC 314 showdown with Michael Chandler at the Kaseya Center.

Speaking as part of the build-up to Saturday’s card, MMA pundit and commentator, Adam Caterall, further touched on Pimblett’s decision to ditch his old hairstyle. On Aspinall’s Fight Lab, he said: “The old Paddy ‘The Baddy’ hair, whenever you get touched or not touched, if he’s moving his head, it looks to the judges like he’s getting clipped. So now he’s tied it back to make it look like a lot less… the aesthetics, the optics of the fight.”

UFC 314

Pimblett vs Chandler co-main events Alexander Volkanovski vs Diego Lopes

The lightweight contest between Pimblett and Chandler is just one of the fights taking place on an intriguing main card in Miami. The event is set to be headlined by the vacant featherweight title fight between Alexander Volkanovski and Diego Lopes.

Two other fights on the card also take place in the featherweight division. Yair Rordriguez will take on Patricio Pitbull in what will be the latter’s UFC debut, while Bryce Mitchell and Jean Silva battle it out in a highly-anticipated match-up.