MANCHESTER, England – Things didn’t work out for Paddy Pimblett haters Saturday.
The British star ran through longtime UFC lightweight Bobby Green on the main card of UFC 304 in what’s now arguably the best win of his UFC career. Pimblett (22-3 MMA, 6-0 UFC) needed less than one round to put Green (32-16-1 MMA, 13-11-1 UFC) to sleep with a triangle choke; he also had an armbar locked in.
Many thought Green was going to be too tough of a test for Pimblett because it was his first ranked opponent in the UFC. But “The Baddy” is delighted he proved his critics wrong once again.
“Oh it’s great. You can’t beat shutting some d*ckheads up,” Pimblett told reporters at the UFC 304 post-fight press conference. “It’s f*cking brilliant. I love shutting up haters, lad.
“The amount of people say, ‘He’s never going to be ranked. He’ll never be good enough to be ranked. He’ll never be in the top 15,’ and all that. Even fighters I’ve seen on YouTube talking sh*t and then to just go out there and put on a flawless performance and absolutely school him (was great).”
Pimblett’s technical submission win came from his opponent looking for the grappling and not the other way around – which surprised many, including Pimblett himself.
“I was surprised he shot in at all,” Pimblett said when asked about Green’s takedown attempt. “He’s had some brilliant standup fights with people like the Jim Miller fight. He stood with Jailin Turner. He’s done three rounds with (Rafael) Fiziev, and he won the third round and people kept talking about that in the build up to this. But everyone underestimates me, lad, just because I look like a 14-year-old girl.”
In the short time the fight was standing, Pimblett did appear to be getting the better of the exchanges, which likely triggered the takedown attempt from Green. He believes his striking is very underappreciated and wants people to start respecting what he can do on the feet.
“As I said all week, people thought I was going to come in and shoot in – and as I told you all, I didn’t need to,” Pimblett explained. “People underestimate my striking, don’t think I can strike. I had a striker shooting in on me. I kept him at the end of my range and the end of my jab and using my kicks and stuff.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.
