Following Paddy Pimblett’s fight against Michael Chandler, he almost had another one backstage when he clashed with welterweight bad boy.
Coming into UFC 314, Paddy Pimblett was well aware that he was taking on his toughest test to date in former UFC lightweight title challenger Michael Chandler.
If the stakes for his fight against ‘Iron’ Mike weren’t high enough, the sport’s biggest star, Conor McGregor, placed a huge $500,000 bet on the co-main event after declaring interest in fighting the winner in a shock UFC return.
Pimblett went on to score the most impressive win of his career, knocking Chandler out in round three, losing McGregor $500,000.
Dana White reacts to surprising backstage altercation
Immediately after ‘The Baddy’ picked up his win, he made his way backstage to do post-fight media interviews before he was collared by longtime welterweight contender Colby Covington.
The two UFC stars then got into a brief altercation, which came as a surprise to security members, who kept them as far apart as possible.
Pimblett has previously declared his interest in moving up to 170lbs to fight Covington, which is what sparked their altercation, as well as the fact that they almost came face to face at a Power Slap event recently, and Pimblett claimed Colby didn’t want to look at him.
UFC boss Dana White has historically been calm when it comes to altercations between fighters outside of the cage. And this Saturday was no different as the CEO reacted to the beef between the two.
“I just heard that (they got into it) on the way in here. No, (I don’t know what it was all about), this s— happens all of the time back here, though,” White reacted during the post-fight press conference.
Paddy Pimblett wants Conor McGregor next
As White went on to mention, the 30-year-old Brit is now in the title conversation and will likely be ranked inside the top eight of the 155lb division come Monday morning.
However, it isn’t a fight with a top-five lightweight that ‘The Baddy’ is looking for next, as he has called out ‘cheeky’ Conor McGregor to make his comeback against him.
Of course, McGregor and Chandler have been linked to fight since 2023 after being booked to main event UFC 303, however, the fight never came to fruition despite Chandler remaining confident it would.
Now Pimblett has taken even more of the 36-year-old’s shine, there is a big possibility that if ‘The Notorious’ does return, he could be his return opponent.
