Paddy Pimblett Names His Preferred Next Opponent

Following suffering his first UFC loss at the hands of Justin Gaethje in their interim lightweight title fight on January 24, Paddy Pimblett is targeting an all European lightweight clash vs. Benoît Saint Denis for his comeback fight this summer.

Pimblett suffered a unanimous decision defeat, as he missed out on the UFC interim lightweight title, thus costing him a potential title shot against the lightweight champion Ilia Topuria. Following UFC 325, where Saint-Denis stopped Dan Hooker via a second-round TKO, Saint-Denis leapfrogged Pimblett to take the #5 spot in the rankings, leaving “The Baddy” at #6. This ranking swap, combined with Saint-Denis’ relentless style, has made him Pimblett’s primary target.

“Saint-Denis moved above me for beating Dan Hooker. Why has he moved above me for beating Dan Hooker? What’s gone on there? I will fight anyone, whichever name gets sent to me on a contract, I sign it and fight them. But Saint-Denis sounds like a good fight to me. Europe’s two best lightweights going against each other,” Pimblett said

If the fight does not get made, Paddy also named several other targets. He had his eyes on the loser of the BMF Title fight between the champion Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira, who rematch at UFC 326 on March 7. Alternatively, he also mentioned the number-one lightweight contender Arman Tsarukyan.

“Or, I won’t get the winner, but the loser of Max Holloway vs. Charles Oliveira. I will fight Arman Tsarukyan if you want me to. I’ll be back in the summer. I haven’t got injuries. People go on about the damage I took? I wanted to spar last Thursday but [my coaches] wouldn’t let me! I didn’t have a concussion, no headaches,” Pimblett added