Caolan Loughran is one of a rare few fighters to win the final fight on his UFC contract and opt to try free agency instead of re-signing.
The former Cage Warriors champion defeated Nathan Fletcher somewhat controversially in the last of his four octagon fights, before it was confirmed weeks later that he had left the promotion. He instead opted to sign with PFL, where he makes his debut on Friday night in Dubai against Jack Cartwright.
What made Loughran’s final victory all the more sweet – aside from being revenge for an amateur defeat to Fletcher – was his ability to get one over on Paddy Pimblett. The pair infamously clashed prior to UFC 304, but the Irishman got the last laugh as he left the Liverpool native with head in hands cageside.
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Caolan Loughran admits Paddy Pimblett feud made final UFC win sweeter
Caolan Loughran’s final UFC win was the subject of some controversy with fans as he got the jump on Nathan Fletcher after losing to the debuting Scouser in the amateurs. The pair are from different gyms in Liverpool; Team Kaobon and Next Gen MMA respectively, whose rivalry goes back years.
And the Tyrone native admits that it was delightful to get a result over Pimblett after their clash a few months prior. “It was really, really satisfying,” he told Bloody Elbow ahead of his PFL debut in Dubai on Friday.
“I think I handled it much better than they would have as a team. I was a lot more courteous, you never want to kick a man when he’s down and I actually like Nathan as a person. But when I saw Paddy and none of the guys around him I was quietly happy.
“We were sitting around in the fighter hotel after, their team there and I’m sitting here, I was just like ‘I f—ing told you’. Not even I told you I’d win, just I told you what would happen, so I was very happy but I’d never kick a man when he’s down.”
Caolan Loughran and Paddy Pimblett feud started over Paul Hughes jab
Interestingly, it was the headliner of Friday’s card who invoked the feud between Loughran and Pimblett – despite not even fighting in the same promotion. After a tough weight cut, Loughran found himself sitting near the Liverpool native on the bus to ceremonial weigh-ins for UFC 304.
There, Pimblett laid in a jab about Paul Hughes, which led Loughran to step in and insist that his fellow Irishman would win if the pair ever met. “I was just down having just weighed in,” he recalled. “Paddy was just talking and talking and talking.
“It was just going through me and then he said something about Paul and I said ‘I just can’t listen to this any more. I said ‘he would batter you’ and that’s how what you saw in the video started.”