UFC lightweight contender, Paddy Pimblett maintains he is still firmly interested in taking Ohio native, Jake Paul’s offer of a sparring match – even after the YouTuber’s split decision loss to Manchester puncher, Tommy Fury in Saudi Arabia last month.
Pimblett, 4-0 since his transition to the UFC back in September 2021, most recently co-headlined UFC 282 back in December of last year against Jared Gordon, scoring his own dubious, debated unanimous decision victory over the Queens native.
A former Cage Warriors featherweight champion, Pimblett managed to land a debut Octagon win over Luigi Vendramini, finishing the Brazilian with strikes, before then stopping both Kazula Vargas and recent winner, Jordan Leavitt with submission victories at UFC London events last year.
As for Paul, the YouTuber and social media star suffered his first professional loss in Riyadh at the end of last month, dropping a split decision loss to the above-mentioned, Fury. Paul had previously secured knockout wins over Tyron Woodley, and Ben Askren, to go with a decision win over former UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva.
Paddy Pimblett welcomes sparring session with boxer, Jake Paul
Sharing his thoughts on Paul’s decision loss to Fury last month, Pimblett, who received a lucrative offer to travel to Puerto Rico ahead of his UFC 282 co-main event last year, in orde to spar the former – insisted he would still take that offer.
“… Jake Paul is just a terrible boxer – even more worse than I thought,” Paddy Pimblett told TMZ Sports. “I was giving him even more credit than I thought he deserved. You don’t know, you know what I mean. But Tommy (Fury) won anyway – it wasn’t a split decision either, that was a unanimous decision – he won most rounds.”
“Yeah, if he (Jake Paul) wants to, lad,” Paddy Pimblett said of a potential sparring match. “I don’t give a f*ck. I’m not arsed, lad. I’ll have a spar with anyone. But, you can’t really win a spar so I don’t get what he meant, you can’t win a spar – you don’t win spars, you know what I mean.”
Missing out on UFC 286 later this month in a return to London for the Octagon, Pimblett suffered an ankle injury during his fight with Gordon, and is slated to undergo a surgical procedure to address the issue.