Is Paddy Pimblett’s Latest UFC Loss Related to His 'Smile Transformation'?

Paddy's face looked pretty bad following his recent loss to Justin Gaethje

Paddy Pimblett’s recent loss to Justin Gaethje on January 24, 2026 was to me a testament not just to his toughness, but also to the power of biomechanics.

Because I think Paddy is full of heart.

He was being touted as one of the key faces of today’s UFC. A very big personality with a sharp sense of humor like his predecessor, Conor McGregor.

And an “entertaining” fighter.

So I think a lot of people were a bit surprised and disappointed to see his latest loss.

But having known about his ‘smile transformation’ a few years ago… I always figured it was just a matter of time.

The Fight: Paddy Pimblett vs. Justin Gaethje

It was a good fight but wasn’t that close.

Gaethje won by unanimous decision with judges scoring it 48-47, 49-46, 49-46 in his favor.

Gaethje, a seasoned striker with a reputation for ruthless efficiency, put on a clinic against Pimblett.

But it wasn’t just that Paddy lost—it was how he lost and what his body was telling us in the process.

Pimblett came into the fight as the betting favorite. He’d been climbing the ranks with impressive victories, building momentum that suggested he was ready to compete at the highest levels of the UFC’s lightweight division.

Gaethje, while respected, wasn’t considered to be on a dominant streak. By most measures, this was supposed to be competitive, maybe even favorable for the younger, supposedly hungrier fighter.

Instead, Gaethje controlled the fight with a level of ease that suggested a pretty big gap in skill/ability between the two.

He wasn’t particularly impressed by Pimblett’s power—in fact, he was openly dismissive of it during the fight.

The Aftermath is Very Telling

Then there’s the aftermath of the fight. Paddy had to be hospitalized and his face looked pretty messed up. It wasn’t normal fight damage, it was something more.

And that to me was a very telling sign.

Because people with very solid biomechanics will not look very damaged from a fight in my experience. Khabig Nurmagomedov was a good example.

Khabib’s face after some of his biggest fights

The guy never even bled in the Octagon once.

Because his skull was built like a tank.

In Paddy’s case I have a feeling the reason his skull looked so messed up was because it had already been destabilized by the ‘smile transformation’ that we will talk about later on

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For example this photo above was taken in 2018 following his fight with Søren Bak, which he lost by decision.

He’d taken a fair few punches during that fight too. But notice how his face does not look beaten up the way it was vs. Gaethje.

Paddy’s “Smile Transformation”

In 2022, Paddy underwent a major smile transformation.

The internet loves documenting these things, and he seemed to play up to it as you can see in the above video.

He went from having a natural, if somewhat unrefined, smile to what looked like a brand new set of teeth. Straight, white, and Hollywood-ready.

He got veneers and bonding work, which most likely altered his occlusion a bit. Which would have messed up the bite positions I talk about here.

Indexed splints and the magical "perfect jaw position"

And when you alter the support for your retrusion and protrusion jaw positions… my experience is that your biomechanics will suffer the consequences.

I Think He’s Now Fighting Biomechanical Collapse

When you change your bite, your skull structure destabilizes in my view.

The dental arch is like the foundation of a building. When you artificially move teeth or add material that changes how your upper and lower teeth come together, you’re setting off a sequence of events that end up collapsing the skull in and twisting the skeleton.

For a fighter like Paddy, this can be catastrophic.

You lose explosive power. As well as quickness and hand speed.

The harder Paddy trains and works out, the more he’s likely twisting his skeleton further into collapse. He’s fighting physics, and physics always wins

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This pic above is from 2021 when he was 26 years old. A year before his ‘smile transformation’.

I can just tell by the way he looks now that something bad has been happening to his biomechanics. The shape of his skull and neck have changed for the worse and between the ages of 26 to 31 that type of change should not have happened that quickly

I Think We’re Going to Continue to See Paddy Slide Downhill From Here

Biomechanics trump everything in my experience.

They trump heart.

They trump work ethic.

They trump training camps and nutritionists.

I’ve watched this play out many times now.

A fighter can be the most dedicated, most disciplined athlete on the planet, but if their skeletal structure is collapsing, they’re fighting a losing battle.

Paddy has all the heart in the world. But that doesn’t matter when your body is literally deflating like a balloon that’s been punctured.

I’m willing to bet that the way he looks continues to evolve pretty quickly from here.

And his performance will continue to decline. The decline won’t be linear—he might still have good moments—but I have a strong feeling the trajectory is set.

Closing thoughts

I’m a big fan of the UFC and think it’s a great tool for measuring biomechanics.

Because you are applying all of the tools that biomechanics enable: power, speed, agility.

And out of all the different fighting sports… the UFC is probably one of the most flexible in just how many different movements you are allowed to do.

So it ends up being a pretty good reflection of biomechanics because all of the top fighters have access to world class training and so that pretty much cancels itself out in fights.

This latest fight by Paddy is a classic case (in my view) of how biomechanics rules the day.

When those biomechanics start dropping, as they did for McGregor, it’s probably time to start thinking about your next career.

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