Dana White has dubbed Paddy Pimblett as “the real deal” following his first round finish at UFC London, comparing him to Sean O’Malley.

Pimblett (18-3 MMA) made his sophomore Octagon appearance this evening against fellow lightweight fighter Kazula Vargas (12-5 MMA). The Liverpool native was looking to cement his status as one of the promotions top budding stars and did so in empathic fashion by scoring another first round victory.

‘The Baddy’ was able to get the fight to the floor with a beautiful judo throw and quickly proceeded to take Vargas’ back. From there, Pimblett locked in a rear-naked choke which forced his Mexican opponent to tapout.

The pop from the crowd at the O2 Arena following Paddy’s stoppage win was nothing short of electrifying. Pimblett proceeded to celebrate by running over to UFC President Dana White and sharing some words.

Official UFC London Result: Paddy Pimblett def. Kazula Vargas via submission at 3:57 of Round 1

During tonight’s post-fight press conference, Dana White spoke praised ‘The Baddy’ for his performance and compared his star power to that of Sean O’Malley.

“I’ll give you an example: On my Instagram, I posted the faceoffs yesterday for the heavyweight fight [Aspinall vs. Volkov]. That did 120,000 views. Paddy’s faceoff did 1.3 million. So all the talk going into the fight about his walkout and all this s***, listen, it’s real. This kid’s got a ton of hype behind him and tonight he showed everybody that he’s the real deal.”

Dana White continued to discuss Paddy Pimblett (h/t MMAFighting):

“I don’t know. I mean, his numbers say yes. His numbers say yes. He could headline a Fight Night,” White said. “It’s just one of those things… He’s like [Sean] O’Malley. O’Malley pulls big numbers. We’ve had a couple guys off the Contender Series that have pulled some big numbers. That’s the best way I could think to explain it. If you look at some of the guys that have come off the Contender Series and you watch the numbers and see what they do, you’ll see these guys either move right to pay-per-view or we headline them or put them in strong positions on Fight Nights. Paddy is definitely one of those guys that could be one.”

Do you agree with Dana White in his comparisons between Paddy Pimblett and Sean O’Malley?