Ahead of his next fight, Paddy Pimblett has been talking, although not about his opponent. In an interview with MMAGuru (the less said about him, the better), the UFC 324 headliner took aim at Dan Hooker, his ability and after the New Zealander responded, it got ugly, quickly.
Paddy Pimblett Takes Aim at The Hangman
Whilst discussing his upcoming matchup, Pimblett compared his opponent, Justin Gaethje, to Hooker. The Liverpudlian criticised Hooker’s grappling skills in an abhorrent way, saying, “Dan Hooker couldn’t grapple a f*cking rapist off his ma.”
Of course, Hooker took umbrage with the comment, resurfacing a video from UFC Baku, where Pimblett showed Hooker respect. He did, however, finish the post with ‘RIP Ricky’, alluding to Paddy Pimblett’s friend who took his own life, sparking Pimblett to give an inspired post-fight speech about mental health at UFC London in 2022. The Baddy often wears a black armband to the octagon with his friend’s name emblazoned on it.
Hooker didn’t stop there, stating in a further tweet that it’s ‘on site’ and called Pimblett a ‘fat b*tch’. 
Pimblett clapped back at Hooker with a tweet of his own, saying:
“Thought we couldn’t be mates ‘cause I’m ranked above you. You took a hypothetical joke about how bad your grappling is and responded by talking shit about my mate who committed suicide? Now that’s lowest of the low and on site is fine by me you’re utter dogsh*t at fighting”.
Paddy Pimblett and Dan Hooker aren’t scheduled to fight each other next, with the Brit clashing with Justin Gaethje for the interim lightweight title on January 24th and Hooker set to compete against Benoit Saint Denis one week later at UFC 325.
Could we see the two face off in the future? They clearly don’t like each other and the fight sells itself.
