Paddy Pimblett had a lot of serious media issues in lead up to UFC 282. While most have been interested in his attempt to ‘take down’ Ariel Helwani that spectacularly backfired, there was also another beef brewing in the sidelines.
Pimblett accused Paul of fixing his boxing matches and in return he got an offer to spar Jake Paul at a date to be determined with a $1,000,000 prize on the line. Paul was even open to Pimblett coming in at any weight he prefered considering that everyone’s aware of his food issues.
While Pimblett competes at 155lbs in UFC, he’s well known to be walking around 200lbs thanks to his binge eating habits.
In an interview with OLBG, UFC star Tom Aspinall addressed the possibility of Pimblett agreeing to it and explained:
“If they’re going to spar boxing it’s going to be a tough time for Paddy because I think Jake Paul is a decent level professional boxer while Paddy is a good level MMA fighter,”
“But if it’s just boxing Jake Paul is going to get the better of him for sure. I think he’s pretty good, everyone thinks he’s a YouTuber but it does not mean he can’t fight.”
Aspinall talked about Jake’s win by saying:
“He’s just beat Anderson Silva. He might be a 48-year-old MMA fighter but he’d still outbox most of the UFC roster. He’s a good, experienced fighter that can box and Paul beat him so fair play that’s a good win.”
Aspinall is still recovering from a catastrophic knee injury he suffered during UFC London against Curtis Blaydes. Some speculate that he might be ready in time for UFC’s O2 arena card booked for March but Aspinall is skeptical:
“I’m not kicking just yet, but I’ve been doing a bit of sparring and stuff. I can full-on wrestle now which is great. I literally started that this week. I’m looking to get signed off by the physio in 8-12 weeks, he reckons, completely signed off and back to full on training, I’m really happy with it all.”