Paddy Pimblett shone a spotlight on mental health following his last win at UFC London in July, calling on those having trouble with loneliness or depression to reach out and talk to their friends and family about it. That speech was inspired by the loss of one of his close friends in the lead-up to his fight, but Pimblett has also grappled with his own mental health over the years.
In a new video on his YouTube channel, Pimblett took an afternoon to train and talk with marines at Camp Pendleton in Oceanside, California. During a Q&A, Pimblett opened up about how dark things had gotten for him in the past and how his support network helped save him.
“My friends, my family, my teammates, my fiancé, all the people closest to me,” Paddy said. “I’ve said it plenty of times, without them I don’t even know if I’d still be here now. I have had some dark times myself, lad, and I have questioned a lot of things in my own head, do I do this or that, I mightn’t be here if it wasn’t for all those people close to me.”
Asked how a person suffering from mental health issues can help themselves, ‘The Baddy’ expanded on his advice of reaching out to your friends.
“You know the saying ‘Get it off your chest?’ It’s real,” Pimblett said. “At the end of 2018, I got in a proper bad place, lad. Proper bad place. Was just waking up and crying every morning. The missus would get up and go to work and I’d just roll over and go to sleep. I was rolling over and just crying for like an hour. Every day. So I had to get over that, and to get through it, I had to speak to people.”
“That ‘Get it off your chest’ saying is the most real thing in the world. As soon as I spoke to one of my mates, and then I went and spoke to someone else, spoke to my coach, spoke to my missus, the next morning I woke up and I didn’t cry. I felt like a weight had been lifted off me shoulders.”
Pimblett added that real friends will always be there to listen and try to help.
“You go to someone and say ‘Oh I’m feeling down’ and they’re not putting their arm around you going ‘How are you, are you all right, talk to me,’ and they’re going ‘Oh I feel great, you’re a piece of s**t,’ they’re not your real mate,” he said. “Don’t speak to them. Anyone that’s your real friend will care about you.”
Paddy Pimblett’s depressive stint came after a 1-2 lull in Cage Warriors that saw him lose his featherweight title and then fail at his attempt to win the lightweight belt. After a year and a half break from competition to get his head straight, Pimblett returned to action, going 2-0 and then accepting a contract with the UFC in September 2021.
Now he’s parlayed that opportunity into true worldwide fame, and is on track to become one of the biggest stars in the promotion. It’s pretty cool to see him use that spotlight to discuss mental health.