Paddy Pimblett moves to lightweight for Cage Warriors 90 return in Liverpool

Paddy Pimblett will return to action at Cage Warriors 90 for the first time since losing the promotion’s featherweight title to Nad Narimani in April.

Cage Warriors announced that “The Baddy” would face Greek prospect Alex Savvidis on Feb. 24 through its social media platforms on Friday.

The Liverpool native will have hometown backing when he competes as a lightweight for the first time after undergoing several tough weight cuts to hit the featherweight mark.

Pimblett (13-2) was scheduled to fight at Cage Warriors 88 in November against Vladimir Zikic, but was forced out of the fight when he suffered a concussion in training.

Narimani snapped a nine-fight winning streak for Pimblett when he took his belt with a one-sided decision at Cage Warriors 82. The Next Generation fighter was considered one of the outstanding prospects on the European scene and was thought to be on the verge of signing a contract with the UFC.

Speaking to the Liverpool Echo, the 22-year-old acknowledged that the Savvidis test is a “pivotal fight” in his young career and that he hopes to put himself in contention for the Cage Warriors lightweight title with a win.

“This is a pivotal fight for me, the most important fight of my life and more than any title fight,” Pimblett said.

“If I lose, I’m going to get called a hype train for life and thrown by the wayside in UK MMA. But that’s just not The Baddy. When I win, I’ll show people I’m back!

“People can slander my name all they want, but when I’m in there there’s no one like me. I’m going to show everyone why I was called the next big thing in this sport, and I’ll prove that by the end of 2018 when I’m two-time world champion at the age of 23.”

Savvidis (16-6-1) is unbeaten in four fights and recently took a win over Brazilian, Nilson Pereira, at Superior FC 18. The 22-year-old will be known to Cage Warriors fans from his losing debut to Paul Redmond back in 2014 when he was making his first steps outside of the Greek scene as a hot prospect.