Dan Hooker is ready to kick Paddy Pimblett’s head in, whether it’s on the street or in the street. Octagon.
As Pimblett walks away from his first title fight at UFC 324, it is his burgeoning rivalry with the ‘Hangman’ that is largely dominating the headlines.
“He yells at me, and I say things back,” Hooker said Ariel Helwani. “He says I’m a bad fighter; he thinks I’m a bad fighter. I think he’s a bad fighter. We both speak our minds, and who cares. The UFC was freaking out, ‘Oh, if Dan and Paddy see each other at the hotel in Qatar…’ I thought, what, because he said I’m bad at jiu-jitsu? I don’t care if someone says I’m bad at jiu-jitsu. There’s nothing personal, but it’s got personal, brother.
Has Paddy Pimblett crossed the line?
The pair’s rivalry seemingly began when ‘The Paddy’ claimed during an interview that “Dan Hooker couldn’t take the damn rapist away from his mother”, while touting Hooker’s wrestling skills.
Needless to say, Hooker was not amused by the comments.
“Name a warrior in history who ever made a rape joke about someone’s mother,” Hooker continued. “As warriors, that’s just a line we don’t cross. You don’t talk about family. You don’t talk about people’s wives, mothers and children. That’s on the no-go list. He wanted a response; he got one, and that’s why I want to take this child’s head off. I just had to make sure the feeling was mutual.”
“He wants to say terrible things, I’m going to say terrible things back, so that when we see each other, the feeling is mutual. It’s visible. If anyone makes a comment like that to me, I’ll kick your head in.”
With Hooker sitting just one spot behind Pimblett in the lightweight rankings, a split between the two would make sense. And with their ongoing feud, it would be a pretty easy sell for the UFC.
But after Justin Gaethje’s Liverpool signing, we may not see Pimblett back in the Octagon until sometime this summer.
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