Liverpool’s Paddy Pimblett has had only two fights inside the UFC Octagon and has already been one of the most popular fighters on the entire UFC roster. His brash personality, coupled with his talking, fighting style, endorsements and social media activity has made him a household name amongst the current crop of UFC fans.
One can easily say, that in recent memory outside of Khamzat Chimaev, there isn’t any fighter who has been quite as effective as Paddy Pimblett in delivering that much noise. When the UFC had their Fight Night event in London, this March, it obviously had UK’s most promising talents like Tom Aspinall and Arnold Allen in the main & co-main event, but none could generate the pop and the buzz in the arena like Pimblett. His rise is getting compared to the likes of Conor Mcgregor, considering both had made their names fighting in UK’s biggest promotion Cage Warriors before venturing out to UFC.
Now given that, Paddy Pimblett comes from the city of Liverpool which has one of the best footballing clubs in Europe and hosts a fifty-three thousand plus seating capacity in its stadium Anfield, he has called on the UFC to hold an event at the aforementioned stadium. Pimblett, a lifetime Liverpudlian, who has followed his club in all major football matches throughout Europe this season has always expressed his desire of headlining the main card at Anfield.
A hesitant Dana White…
However UFC President Dana White has shut down any talks of a possible event at Anfield.
In a new interview with The Spinnin Backfist MMA Show, White clearly stated that outdoor stadium shows are a bad idea in mixed martial arts, especially in climates like the UK and Ireland where it rains so much.
He said :
“I’m not going outside. I’m definitely not going outside in f****** England,” White said.
“If you’re going to go outside, you go to Abu Dhabi where it’s hot as hell and absolutely not going to rain but I don’t even like that.
“I don’t like having any outside factors that can affect the fight. Heat, wind, any of that stuff that can hurt the outcome of a fight, I don’t like.”
Response from Paddy Pimblett
Pimblett has remained confident that the UFC will organize such an event at Anfield in future, despite the UFC President stating otherwise as of now. Plenty of Pimblett’s previous fights in Liverpool have been for Cage Warriors inside the Echo Arena where current UFC middleweight and fellow Liverpudlian Darren Till has headlined an event back in 2018.
During an interview on the Anfield pitch, Pimblett told BT Sport: “I know I’m going to bring it here at Anfield, I know I’m going to bring it here. I know I’m eventually going to fight here; I’ve visualised it and I’ve imagined it over the years and now it’s getting closer and closer to happening. I know full well it’s going to happen. It’s going to happen over the next five years.”
Since the recent comments of Dana White, Pimblett has responded with a tweet, citing White’s 2011 comments that women would “never” fight in the UFC.
Pimblett is scheduled to fight Jordan Leavitt on July 23 at the O2 Arena. This will be UFC’s second Fight Night even in England this year. Fight fans believe that Leavitt will be Paddy’s toughest test inside the UFC octagon to date.
What do you think, will Dana White change his mind regarding holding an event at Anfield?
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images and Embed from Getty Images
