Ahead of his fight against Justin Gonzales at PFL 6, British star Brendan Loughnane has explained his longstanding feud with UFC lightweight contender, Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett.
Brendan Loughnane won the PFL featherweight tournament in 2022, taking home $1m and the featherweight title. Loughnane didn’t make it to the postseason the following season, after suffering his first-ever career knockout loss.
The Mancunian sits top of the featherweight standings this current season after scoring a first-round knockout against Pedro Carvalho at PFL 3.
Brendan Loughnane explains his competitive feud with Paddy Pimblett
The 34-year-old competed on Dana White’s Contender Series back in 2019, and despite picking up the win over Bill Algeo, he wasn’t offered a UFC contract.
Despite having always fought in different promotions, Loughnane has a longstanding feud with UFC lightweight star, Paddy Pimblett, and he has admitted that a fight between the two needs to happen before both their careers are said and done.
“I know we’re both in different organizations and on different trajectories right now but I genuinely believe that we cannot finish our careers without fighting each other, it’s just in there,” Loughnane told Title Sports Network.
The former PFL champion explained that the feud between the two is respectful and stems from competitiveness when they were both on the comeup.
“We were both the guys coming up for years, don’t forget Paddy’s been in it as long as me, he’s a scouser and I’m a Manc, there is always going to be that.
“It just became this big thing and then he kept winning and I kept winning and it just (continued) growing. I do respect him because, at the end of the day, he’s just a guy trying to make a living for his family, like me,” the 34-year-old added.
Loughnane wants to fight Pimblett in Liverpool
Loughnane claimed that he would be happy to fight the Scouser in his home city of Liverpool, in what would be ‘the end of a generation’ fight.
“Manchester or Liverpool (I’d like the fight to take place), it would have to be. I would love (to fight him in Liverpool), but I’d probably prefer Liverpool, it would be mad. It’s a shame it didn’t happen at UFC Manchester, if me and Paddy would’ve fought at UFC Manchester it would’ve been absolutely insane,” Loughnane stated.
UFC 304 takes place at the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, on July 27th, and ‘The Baddy’ takes on UFC fan favorite, Bobby Green, in what is his toughest test thus far.
A win will likely finally push the 29-year-old into the lightweight rankings with ‘King’ Green currently sitting at rank 14 at 155lbs.