Paddy Pimblett vs Brendan Loughnane is the Battle of Britain we need in 2019

It’s a rivalry that’s been brewing for several years. Paddy Pimblett… Liverpool’s greatest son in the MMA world, cocky since day dot and the skills to back it up. On the other side of the M62 Motorway you have Brendan Loughnane… a former TUF contest who’s built steady momentum in Europe since 2012… and a native of rival city Manchester. Probably the biggest and most heated derby is Manchester vs Liverpool and these two men are the epitome of their respective towns. They embrace the culture, they are essentially the working class heroes, and I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to them both, several times over the past 4 years.

It was back in 2015 when I first met Brendan. He was coming off a decision loss to BAMMA’s then rising star, Frenchman Tom Duquesnoy. A decision that was marred in controversy by the way. Despite being very upset at the judges scorecards, he still had some words for Cage Warriors star Paddy Pimblett, and that was without me even asking.

https://www.spreaker.com/user/machat/brendan-loughnane

As the years rolled on and Brendan continued to rack up wins in promotions such as ACB and Tanko… Paddy won the Cage Warriors Featherweight Crown and firmly established himself as the Featherweight King in the UK… not in Mr Loughnane’s eyes… Brendan was improving with every fight and was getting the mat time in at Alliance MMA under the tutelage of Dominick Cruz. The rivalry seemed more heated than ever with the two constantly jabbing each other at social media and teasing all us fans with a potential fight announcement.

Admittedly it had gotten to the point where we were fed up hearing about it, and when I got the chance to speak to Paddy this year, he was sick of being asked about, but in classic Pimblett style, he still had some choice words for his Manchester Rival.

https://www.facebook.com/martialartschat/videos/1513879715424456/

It’s a fight that needs to happen, promotion seems to be the main set back at this point. We would need to have Brendan in Cage Warriors, as it’s pretty much unfathomable that Paddy would fight for any other promotion, other than perhaps the UFC somewhere down the line. But this fight would be the making of a spectacular contest, at Featherweight or Lightweight.

2019 – Ian Dean, Cage Warriors, we want it, the fighters have always wanted it, the fans want it, Manchester will make their voices heard, Liverpool will be roaring from the Mersey, let’s make 2019 the year we finally get to see Britain’s two biggest fighters, two huge adversaries.