With Paddy Pimblett now less than two weeks away from his clash with King (formerly Bobby) Green, he’s opened up about what he believes to be the American’s Achilles heel.
The pair of lightweights will clash on July 27 in an eagerly-anticipated bout at UFC 304 inside the 23,500-seater Co-op Live in Manchester, UK.
Paddy Pimblett believes King Green is ‘chinny’
Blessed with a lethal submission game and a polarizing personality, Paddy Pimblett has cemented his place as one of the biggest stars in the sport.
After years in Cage Warriors, ‘The Baddy’ finally made the plunge into the UFC, where he’s emerged victorious over the likes of Tony Ferguson and Jordan Leavitt.
However, his performances in the cage have yet to convince a portion of the fanbase that he has the skills to compete at the very top of the sport.
Therefore, with King Green currently #15 in the lightweight rankings, Pimblett will have to back up all his boasts, if he wants to prove he has what it takes to claw his way to the pinnacle of the mountain.
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Consequently, with such a tough task on his hands, the Liverpudlian has worked tirelessly on forming the correct game plan, which has led him to the conclusion that having taken such punishment against Jalin Turner, his rival can’t take a shot anymore.
He told MMA Junkie: “That fight with Jalin, I was sitting in this room [where I’m doing this interview] watching it with my mate Blaze.
“We were both like, ‘Stop the fight, stop the fight.’ As much as he talked sh*t about me that fight week, I can remember turning to my lad Blaze and saying, ‘I know he spoke sh*t about me, but that’s f*cking disgusting. How has that ref allowed that to go on like that’?”
He continued: “I do think it’s still affecting him because he got clipped with a few shots against Jim Miller, who is not a big puncher, and in the first round he looked a little bit [wobbly].
“He looked like Jim hurt him a little bit, I thought. Jim won the first round against Bobby. So, I think he’s a little bit chinny now.
“Not even the Jalin Turner one. He got knocked out clean by Drew Dober as well a couple of months before that. He’s been knocked out a few times, but that Jalin Turner one – your chin is never the same after something like that.”
Paddy Pimblett could walk away from MMA after UFC 304
While his adoring supporters hope a victory on July 27 could mark Pimblett’s arrival at MMA’s top table, in reality, it could spell the end of his time in the sport altogether.
The bout against Green is the last contest on his current UFC contract. Thus, while he claims he’d never fight in another MMA promotion, he isn’t ruling out making the switch to boxing.
While the 29-year-old is far more lethal with his grappling skills than his fists, he has a few names he’d love to go head-to-head with in the influencer scene.
In his interview with MMA Junkie, he added: “It goes without saying: I wouldn’t want to go to a different organization. UFC is the cream of the crop, it’s the main place [to be]. When you say to people, ‘I do MMA’ most of them go, ‘What’s that?’ You say, ‘UFC’ – people don’t even know what MMA is, they know what UFC is.
“You never know, though. Some of these stupid YouTubers who are boxing could end up offering me millions to end up fighting one of them. So, we’ll see what happens.”
While the possibility of losing Pimblett will upset some of the fans, all hope is not yet lost, as there’s one man he’d love to tango with on a season of The Ultimate Fighter.
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