Dan Hooker already has a future opponent in mind after taking a stray shot from Paddy Pimblett.
The two lightweights already have fights booked, with Hooker facing Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 325 on Jan. 31, and Pimblett just a couple of weeks away from an interim lightweight title clash with Justin Gaethje, which headlines UFC 324 on Jan. 24. But Pimblett felt the need to toss an insult Hooker’s way during a recent interview.
On the topic of Gaethje’s age, Pimblett compared him to Hooker, another veteran, and crudely insulted Hooker’s grappling skills, saying, “Dan Hooker couldn’t grapple a f*cking rapist off his ma.”
Unsurprisingly, Hooker hasn’t taken kindly to that comment. He subsequently took to social media to respond, sharing video of a previous encounter with Pimblett to call out “The Baddy” for changing his attitude.
“Ain’t said shit when we were face to face, bitch,” Hooker wrote. “I thought we were mates, but you’re not a very good mate, are you?”
The invective from Hooker didn’t stop there as he wrote another tweet, adding, “It’s on [sight], you fat bitch.”
Pimblett later kept the trash talk going in his own social media response.
“Thought we couldn’t be mates ‘cause I’m ranked above you,” Pimblett wrote. “You took a hypothetical joke about how bad your grappling is and responded by talking shit about my mate who committed suicide? Now that’s lowest of the low and on [sight] is fine by me you’re utter dogshit at fighting.”
Hooker and Pimblett both occupy spots in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings, with Hooker at No. 7 and Pimblett tied for the No. 11 spot. Should Pimblett defeat Gaethje for the interim belt, the expectation is that he will face undisputed champion Ilia Topuria. However, with Topuria currently taking time off to deal with personal and legal issues, the door is open for the UFC 324 main event winner to defend their title at some point, and the Hooker-Saint Denis winner might just sneak into that spot with an impressive performance at UFC 325.
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