Dan Hooker isn’t interested in deescalating his war of words with Paddy Pimblett.
The UFC lightweights have verbally been at each other’s throats in recent weeks, taking deeply personal shots at each other through interviews. Pimblett started the feud, saying, “Dan Hooker couldn’t grapple a f*cking rapist off his ma,” and Hooker replied by questioning Pimblett for being friendly to his face in an earlier meeting only to change his attitude.
In doing so, Hooker referenced Ricky, a friend of Pimblett’s who died by suicide. Pimblett accused Hooker of crossing the line, but in Hooker’s opinion, he was simply matching fire with fire.
“F*ck around and find out, brother,” Hooker told Combat TV, confirming that the mention of Pimblett’s friend was a deliberate attempt to rattle him. “That’s all you can say about that, f*ck around and find out. You want to take it there? There’s shit you don’t talk about as fighters. He can say whatever he wanted, he tried to get a reaction, he f*cking got one. You go low, I go lower.”
While a future fight could develop, Pimblett and Hooker are currently occupied. Pimblett fights Justin Gaethje for an interim lightweight title in the main event of UFC 324 this Saturday in Las Vegas, while Hooker is scheduled to take on Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 325 the following weekend.
If the two are ever matched up, don’t expect Hooker to back down. “The Hangman” admitted Pimblett’s comments affected him and that they won’t be squashing the beef anytime soon as far as he’s concerned.
“You want to say some horrible shit like that, yeah, I’m going to think of the most horrible shit I can possibly and I’m going to bring that shit up, too,” Hooker said. “He genuinely pissed me off. He genuinely got under my skin and he got a reaction. He wanted to piss me off, he pissed me off. I wanted to say something so the feeling’s mutual. I want to kick your head in the next time I see you, now you want to kick my head in back. Now the feeling is mutual. I’ve got no intention of making up, there’s no coming back from that.”
