Paddy Pimblett recently addressed the controversy surrounding his unsanctioned gym fight with fellow MMA fighter Denis Frimpong – explaining why he ignored Frimpong’s tap and held onto a Rear Naked Choke.
Pimblett clarified that both fighters had agreed to a specific set of rules before engaging in the fight:
We both agreed, we don’t stop until someone’s unconscious. Taps don’t count. Quitting to strikes doesn’t count.We just go until someone’s out cold.
He also provided context on how the fight unfolded:
Got up, drove to Manchester Top Team, we were in and out within 15 minutes.Walked in the middle, said: “Let’s do this.”
To be honest, I think he gave me the choke. He stuck his neck out to give me the choke because he didn’t want to get flattened out and ground-and-pounded until he was unconscious.
I took the choke, and as we all know, if you get choked unconscious, you just wake back up.
Critics questioned Pimblett’s decision to hold the choke, but he pointed out that Frimpong had a similar mindset:
A lot of people saying I’ve got no honor…
I’ve seen Denis say in an interview since: “If I would have knocked him unconscious, I would have jumped on him and landed a few more strikes.”
All is fair in love and war.
Pimblett also explained why he was motivated to accept the fight in the first place, citing Frimpong’s behavior toward people close to him:
He was bullying two of the lads who come to my gym, Jake and George, who are like my little brothers.I train with them every day. I had something against him just for that anyway.
As you all know, I don’t like bullies. And then when he fought George in the final of the comp, he was saying mad stuff to George, saying: “Your grandma’s going to hell”… Well, because his grandma’s dead.
All that stuff rubbed me up the wrong way.
He also took issue with Frimpong’s comments directed at his strength and conditioning coach:
My coach Paul Reed, who’s like my uncle, he commented on it saying this is embarrassing.And Denis put back to him: “You stick to S and C, old man. Leave the fighters to fight.”
That was it. I went at him, I couldn’t help it.We kept going back and forth, I ended up saying, come on, let’s get a spar on. Let’s do it.
After securing the submission, Pimblett said he was ready to continue the fight:
I stood back up and went to the corner and just said: “Come ahead, let’s go again from the feet. You said you wanted to strike. Let’s go again from the feet.”
And Denis came over and said: “No. I’m done. I don’t want to go again.”And then we shook hands like men.
Sloth Jiu-Jitsu: you can be slow and unathletic and still kick butt in Jiu-Jitsu.
