Another UFC lightweight is looking for his chance to derail the Paddy Pimblett hype train.
Paddy Pimblett is streaking up the UFC lightweight division as one of the UK’s most popular MMA talents, and he’s doing it seemingly all on his own terms. The Next Generation MMA fighter has made it clear in the past that he doesn’t need to go asking for big fights, with the hype he’s gathered, he’ll always have opponents to choose from.
“As I say, I don’t mention anyone’s name. People talk about me,” Pimblett said in a July interview. “People have my name in their mouth. Like ‘hand sanitizer boy’ [Ilia Topuria], you know what I mean?
“All these fools mention me for some clout, some followers. But I don’t need to mention anyone’s name and I never will because people talk about me.”
So far, it seems like he’s right.
Fellow fast-rising prospect Terrance McKinney had a call-out all ready for Pimblett after his latest UFC victory. But even more seasoned, veteran talents are taking their opportunities to try and get a piece of the Liverpudlian. Longtime action-fight veteran Bobby Green caught a glimpse of the ‘Baddy’ cageside at UFC San Diego: Vera vs. Cruz recently, and decided to shoot a little covert video to make his own case for a fight with the former Cage Warriors champ.
“Look at this little fathead right here, look at this little fathead,” Green said, as he filmed Pimblett at the Pechanga Arena (transcript via MMA Mania). “Who is this fathead guy? Can somebody tell me who this fathead guy is? I wanna know! They said he’s the ‘Baddy’ [but] I don’t know … if he was ‘bad’ he’d fight me. If you wanna fight somebody real, somebody with some real credibility, not this ‘Monkey King’ bullshit, weird shit, fight a real (expletive) bro. The real one. Y’all can tag him and let him know what I’m saying. Let him know! I don’t want to disrespect him in front of his girl. He’s with his lady friend right now. That would just be mean.”
Looks like Bobby Green wants the Paddy Pimblett fight pic.twitter.com/glT0EPKINJ
— Alex Behunin (@AlexBehunin) August 15, 2022
Currently hanging out up over 200 lbs, Pimblett recently revealed he’s hoping to hit the cage one more time in 2022, come December.
“Everyone wants to fight me, lad,” Pimblett told reporters back stage at the UFC San Diego event. “They all got less than 100,000 followers, and I’m at 1.8 million or something. That’s why they want to fight me. I’m also not a very scary dude. I don’t look that intimidating, lad. So people think, ‘Oh, I can beat him.’ And when you get in the cage with me, and you’ve got to solve the puzzle, you can’t.”
“I think I’m going to fight in Vegas,” he added. “That’s what I’m hoping. I’ve seen the card get slated for December 10.”
No word yet on just who Pimblett might face if he can make that winter fight date happen, but it seems he’ll have plenty of takers when the UFC starts looking to get a bout lined up for him.