[autotag]Paddy Pimblett[/autotag] is keener than most to keep the show rolling at Cage Warriors 113 on Friday.
The former Cage Warriors featherweight champion is coming off a loss and hasn’t fought in 18 months after a sequence of unfortunate events saw four fight bookings fall by the wayside. But now, thanks to the arrival of late-notice opponent Decky Dalton (11-4), Pimblett (14-3) looks to end one of the most frustrating spells of his career with a win.
“Tell me about it!” he told MMA Junkie when asked about the frustration of spending so long away from the cage. “It’s been (expletive) hard work, and it’s been doing my head in. I should have fought in November (against Joe Giannetti) but the (expletive) missed weight, on purpose. Then I’ve had to sit out another four months and wait and just continue the way I was. Then finally, a week out, 10 days or so, everyone’s saying the show’s going to get canceled.”
Pimblett was originally slated to face Donovan Desmae at Cage Warriors 113. Then, after the Belgian contender was forced to withdraw, Italian Davide Martinez slotted in before the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent travel bans in Italy meant he was unable to make it to England. Now Pimblett has his third opponent as he takes on Ireland’s Decky Dalton, who agreed to step in on just a week’s notice after competing – and winning – at a regional event last weekend.
“Last Monday I got told I didn’t have an opponent, so I’m thinking, ‘(Expletive), I haven’t got a fight again,'” Pimblett said. “Then I got one. Decky Dalton, give him his due, said ‘yes.’ I had high hopes thinking, ‘Yeah! It’s finally going to happen,’ then I started getting phone calls off people saying the show’s getting canceled!”
Despite those rumors, the event will indeed go ahead, with Cage Warriors announcing Monday night that it was moving its behind-closed-doors card to Manchester’s BEC Arena following the closure of indigo at The O2 in London. The event will be the only major MMA event to take place this weekend, meaning Pimblett and his fellow fighters are likely to get a huge audience, even though they will be fighting in an empty arena on the night.
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“Everyone’s going to be watching it, and that does fire me up,” he said. “It’s going to get great exposure, everyone’s going to be looking at it. It’s the only MMA show that’s going to be on; it’s the only one.”
Pimblett always brings a party atmosphere to his fights, as he bounces his way to the cage to his walkout song, Basement Jaxx’s “Where’s Your Head At?” Even though there will be no fans in the building on Friday night, Pimblett says he’ll be bringing the energy to the BEC Arena, as usual.
“Yeah, of course!” he said. “When my song comes on, it just takes over. The crowd always picks me up and electrifies me, but the song does, as well. That’s why I’ve never changed my song. It always gets me going.
“It’s been 18 months since I last fought, so I just want to get in the cage and fight, you know what I mean? I can’t be having this corona (expletive) putting me back even more, because it looks like after this there’s not going to be many shows for a while.”
The fact that Pimblett is going to be one of the biggest names on a card that is sure to receive huge exposure means there could be a good number of fight fans watching one of his fights for the first time. When asked about that, the always-confident Liverpudlian fired straight back.
“Where’ve they been hiding if they’ve never seen me fight before? Where the (expletive) have they been hiding! What rock have they been under?” he asked. “Everyone in the MMA world knows who I am, it’s that simple. Everyone knows, and they’re going to continue to know because on Friday night I’m going to steal the show.”
Friday night is more than just another fight for Pimblett. It’s a chance to earn some money, a chance to bounce back into the win column and a chance to end 18 months of frustration on the sidelines. That’s a lot of motivation, and the former 145-pound champion says Friday night can’t come too soon.
“No one can stop me,” he said. “The only thing that can stop me is myself, and I’ve done that in the past and gone in there with injuries and different stuff. But I’m a different person now. I’ve grown up, I’m a different person, and I can’t wait to (expletive) fight.”