It is said that the reason Pignite are both fire and fighting type is because Tepig, saved from the slaughterhouse by their trainers, are so grateful that they put everything into training for battle and evolve into a fighting pokemon. This is not quite true; only Wurmple can truly choose which way they evolve, although others such as Gloom and Eevee have some ability to impact the method of their evolution when not constrained by opportunity or their trainers' wishes. Nor do Tepig raised from birth for battle or research evolve any differently than those raised for food and later freed, although this myth may originate in the fact that the former group of Pignite are less reluctant to use fire techniques.
Travelers from Sinnoh and Hoenn have often noted that Pignite share a type resemblance with Combusken and Monferno, both of whom also evolve from pokemon customarily given to beginners, and both species are known to be among the many which took part in the prolonged crossbreeding that created Tepig from Grumpig. But this explanation for their evolution is even more difficult to accept, for Pignite are the descendants of countless generations of psychic pokemon, yet do not learn a single psychic attack!
Efforts to replace Pignite's typing with something more unique or advantageous through crossbreeding have ended uniformly in failure, for the evolution of pokemon is a mysterious thing which science is only now beginning to truly comprehend. But there remain many world travelers who suggest that should another fire pokemon ever be discovered to turn into a fighting type on evolution, that it will instantly replace the fire-type pokemon previously used in the area as a starter, despite the fact that the usage of Combusken, Monferno, and Pignite in this role developed independently of one another.