Paddy Pimblett is ready to go to the mat with Charles Oliveira.
This past Saturday’s UFC 326 main event saw Oliveira add the “BMF” belt to his trophy case with a one-sided, smothering win over Max Holloway. The former lightweight champion dominated the majority of the five-round bout, using his grappling to ground Holloway and win a clear-cut decision.
Pimblett reacted to the fight on his YouTube channel and while he was impressed with Oliveira putting on a jiu-jitsu clinic, he thinks he matches up well with him in that department.
“I’d love to fight Charles, though,” Pimblett said. “Everyone goes on about his grappling. Everyone thinks it’s levels above mine and I know it isn’t. If I fought Charles, we’d probably end up having a war on the feet. Charles’ résumé is heavy.”
Few have gone to the ground with Oliveira and lived to tell about it. Whether it was by taking them down or hurting them on the feet and then going for the kill, Oliveira has finished a number of top 10 opponents, including Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, and Mateusz Gamrot.
Holloway made it to the final bell, but in the end walked away with a loss. Pimblett wonders if the former featherweight champion is having second thoughts about a permanent move to lightweight, where larger fighters could continue to give him problems.
“Max has never really fought a grappler at lightweight, has he?” Pimblett said. “So this could be a realization for him that – I don’t know if he could even make 145 now as he put a bit of size on, but it doesn’t look like he has because he’s getting manhandled.
“Like, Gamrot will be looking at this like, ‘If Charles can do this to him, I can.’ The two people that Max has fought at lightweight before this, Poirier and Gaethje, would just strike with him. And Max is one of the best strikers in UFC, he’s brilliant.”
Pimblett understands the criticism, but also why Oliveira fought the way he did. He also joked that maybe he should have done the same when he fought Gaethje for an interim lightweight title at UFC 324.
“No, I understand what people are saying, it’s not very ‘BMF-like,’” Pimblett said. “That’s right, but at the same time, any way to win. I should have done more of this against Gaethje.”
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