Dan Hooker doesn’t regret his back-and-forth trash talk with Paddy Pimblett.
Things got very personal between the two UFC lightweights after Pimblett took a shot at Hooker’s grappling. Pimblett (23-3 MMA, 7-0 UFC) said Hooker (24-13 MMA, 14-9 UFC) “couldn’t grapple a f*cking rapist off his ma,” and Hooker fired back by mentioning Pimblett’s friend who took his own life.
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Pimblett said Hooker’s comments were below the belt, but “The Hangman” doesn’t take anything back.
“F*ck around and find out,” Hooker told Combat TV. “You want to take it there? There’s sh*t you don’t talk about. He tried to get a reaction, and he got one. You go low, I go lower. You want to say some horrible sh*t like that, then I’m going to think of the most horrible sh*t I can possibly – I’m going to bring that sh*t up, too. He genuinely pissed me off.
“He genuinely got under my skin. He got a reaction. He wanted to piss me off; he pissed me off. I wanted to say something, so the feeling is mutual. I want to kick your head in the next time I see you. Now you want to kick my head in back. Now the feeling is mutual. I’ve got no intention of making up. There’s no coming back from there.”
Pimblett takes on Justin Gaethje in Saturday’s UFC 324 (Paramount+) main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Hooker will be in action a week later when he faces Benoit Saint Denis in the UFC 325 co-headliner on Jan. 31 from Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Dan Hooker to Paddy Pimblett: ‘You go low, I go lower’
