MMA analyst Dan Hardy has made a big Conor McGregor claim regarding Paddy Pimblett’s future.

Last Saturday night at UFC London, Paddy Pimblett was able to take his UFC record up to 3-0 as he submitted Jordan Leavitt to maintain his growing status as one to watch in the lightweight division. Many fans and pundits still aren’t entirely convinced that he can go all the way but in a general sense, the most popular view tends to be ‘so far, so good’.

The 27-year-old is able to combine his skills inside the cage with his personality out of it and from his walkout to his submission prowess, he certainly knows how to get people talking.

One individual who has seen a large portion of Pimblett’s growth since the early days is none other than Dan Hardy.

The former UFC fighter has been a member of the Cage Warriors family for quite some time and when discussing the rise of ‘The Baddy’, Hardy made quite the claim about how far the youngster can go.

“He’s in a very strong position where he could become something way more than Conor McGregor, and I know that’s a difficult thing for us to imagine, but we couldn’t have imagined Conor McGregor before he stepped out of Cage Warriors.”

Hardy was then asked directly by Helwani about whether or not Pimblett could become bigger than the Irishman.

“Yeah for sure, absolutely. Especially because people’s brands change and shift. Conor is not as easy to gravitate towards as he used to be in the beginning of his career. It’s much more easy to relate to people when they’ve stepped off the streets and they’re going through hard times. Now he [Conor] is living on yachts and stuff. I think he’s quite estranged from his fanbase.”

“I think people will follow Paddy to a much longer degree than they have done Conor, because I don’t think Paddy is gonna fall off in the same way Conor did and find himself in handcuffs.”

When will they return?

Pimblett tends to take a few months off following his UFC appearances and, based on what we know about him already, we wouldn’t be surprised to see him have a good time with his grub before returning at the end of the year or at the start of 2023.

McGregor, meanwhile, continues to rehab from the broken leg he suffered at UFC 264 with a return date currently unknown.