Paddy Pimblett caught in bus altercation with undercard UFC 304 fighter moments before ceremonial weigh-ins

The Tyrone native trains at the Team Kaoban gym in Liverpool, which is something of a rival to Pimblett’s home of Next Gen MMA. And the feud made it’s way on to the fighter bus heading to weigh-ins as the pair went back-and-forth.

Paddy Pimblett in bus altercation with Caolan Loughran at UFC 304

As the blue corner fighters were arriving backstage at the arena for tonight’s ceremonial weigh-in, Paddy Pimblett, sat near the back of the bus, took aim at Caolan Loughran. The pair went back-and-forth verbally as cameras filmed them during the incident.

It is unclear what started the fracas, but footage posted by The Ultimate Fighter winner Lee Hammond who is cornering Kiefer Crosbie this weekend appeared to show Pimblett taking issue with the Irish bantamweight.

When Hammond’s video picked up, Pimblett appeared to be arguing over the credentials of his teammate Luke Riley, who is set to take part on Contender Series. He joked that Loughran uses weak sparring partners, and claimed that Riley would ‘knock Loughran the f*** out’.

Pimblett then noted that he spars much higher-level fighters than Loughran, claiming that the Irishman trains with ‘mushrooms’.

When he noted that his other teammate Nathan Fletcher had ‘schooled’ Loughran in their amateur days, the Irishman clapped back by asking how he did on TUF. An initial favourite to win the show, Fletcher lost his opening round match-up on the reality show to Kaan Ofli.

The video cut for a minute and it then appeared that Pimblett was mocking Loughran’s close friend and former Cage Warriors champion Paul Hughes over his move to PFL. He then claimed Riley would comfortably beat the Irishman and predicted he would be finished by Hadley.

Pimblett ended the argument by branding Loughran a ‘fat-headed ming,’ before threatening to ‘slap up’ the Irishman. Loughran has since replied to the video, which was re-posted to a broader audience by Irish journalist Andy Stevenson, branding Pimblett a ‘fat c***’.

Paddy Pimblett dragged apart from King Green in final UFC 304 face-off

When it came to his actual business tomorrow night, Pimblett was similarly animated as he squared off with the former Bobby Green. The American, who holds the top 15 ranking that the Brit craves, poked at his rival before being reminded not to touch him by promoter Dana White.

The crowd, clearly in support of Pimblett, cheered on the Liverpool native as he was eventually separated from Green. He walked off stage to a massive reception as he threw t-shirts to fans in the arena.

It followed an intense staredown at yesterday’s pre-fight press conference, where the pair exchanged heated words before eventually coming apart. Green has been pursuing the fight with Pimblett for years, and they will finally compete on Saturday in one of the main card’s most anticipated bouts.

Caolan Loughran to earn 20 per cent of rival’s purse as Jake Hadley misses weight

For his part, Caolan Loughran was relatively popular with the Manchester crowd as he took to the stage for his prelim bout. He had been due to face Ramon Taveras, but a late-notice cancellation meant that a new opponent had to be drafted in for the event.

This led to a chance for a battle of former Cage Warriors champions as Jake Hadley stepped in on just a few days’ notice. Unfortunately, the ex-flyweight was unable to get down to the requisite 136lb for a non-title bantamweight bout.

As such, he has forfeited a fifth of his purse, while the fight will go ahead as planned. There was needle between the pair during their face-off, as it appears any goodwill over Hadley taking the fight has dissipated.

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