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Paddy Pimblett and Denis Frimpong went viral for their extra curricular activities ahead of UFC 314. (Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC)
Mike Roach via Getty Images
In late December, a month before he arrived at Manchester Top Team to settle his inherited beef with Oktagon lightweight Denis Frimpong in a soon-to-be viral gym fight, Paddy Pimblett was already hinting at the biggest fight of his life against Michael Chandler at UFC 314.
“I’ve said yeah, the opponent said yeah, just need to get stuff signed. So you know the score, everyone — like, comment, subscribe, and I’ll see you at the top,” he told his abundant YouTube audience, signing off with one of Chandler’s signature catchphrases.
Six months hadn’t even passed since Pimblett’s star-making moment at Manchester’s Co-op Live, when, in the middle of the night, “The Baddy” electrified spectators on the soil of his beloved Liverpool Football Club’s bitter rivals, Manchester United, by choking King Green to sleep in just three minutes at UFC 304.
Pockets of the fan base continue to criticize the Next Generation fighter, claiming he’s been given preferential treatment by the powers that be. His unique look, headline-grabbing patter and unbeaten UFC record have underlined his status as a superstar in the making. Yet, with so much to lose, there he was on a cold January morning, standing on business in enemy territory.
Although he’s the same age as the 30-year-old Pimblett, Frimpong’s start in the sport came nearly a decade later.
When the U.K. regional scene was getting its first glimpses of “The Baddy,” Frimpong was making a name for himself on the Irish track and field beat. A self-confessed “scrapper,” his future calling may not have come as a surprise to those in the athletics community, as his propensity to pop off got him removed from several track meets.
The pandemic brought a shift in his training focus. From the famed mats of East Coast Jiu-Jitsu, he moved into the striking realm with the celebrated Dublin Combat Academy. Eventually, successful sparring sessions with notable dance partners guided him toward MMA as a career.
A job opportunity in Manchester forced Frimpong across the Irish Sea in 2022. With two amateur fights already to his name, he looked to find a permanent home for his training. He imagined he would split his training across multiple facilities, but after dipping his toe in several, he realized it wouldn’t fly.
“The reality was, with a full-time job, I didn’t really have time to be running up and down the country for training,” Frimpong says. “And of course, I soon found out that none of the gyms really get along.”
Manchester Top Team emerged as an option when Frimpong lost a split decision to one of their top amateur prospects, Callum Conner. Carl Prince’s team was one of the few gyms in the area that remained legitimately open during the pandemic, with Lerone Murphy’s UFC contract granting the facility elite training status within the country. After edging a win over another top Irish prospect in Solomon Simon, Frimpong knew he was on the right track.
He'd barely been an amateur a year before he turned professional, then he split his first two pro fights before an opportunity presented itself to represent Ireland on the reality program "Oktagon Challenge: England vs. Ireland" in 2023.
The same opportunity also provided the catalyst for his unsanctioned gym fight with Pimblett.
Next Generation’s George Staines and Jake McHugh represented Team England on the reality show. If 32 seasons of "The Ultimate Fighter" have shown us anything, it's that controversy is the lifeblood of the platform. Oktagon’s version was much the same.
Producers celebrated every prank and argument that took place between the teams, and for the three and a half weeks the shoot lasted, Frimpong survived on fumes as he stayed close to fighting weight.
Frimpong has never shied away from being an agitator. However, when he brought up Staines’ grandmother in the lead-up to their clash on the show’s finale, Pimblett and his Next Generation stablemates took exception to it.
“I’m not going to defend the stuff I said to George. It was out of order, it was below the belt,” Frimpong admits. “It was compounded by a number of things, but it was kind of a domino effect towards what happened in January.”
OKTAGON Challenge
Team England’s, George Staines meets Team Ireland’s, Denis Frimpong in the TV series final.
Who will be crowned the first ever OKTAGON Challenge: England vs. Ireland champion?
5pm/6pm
https://t.co/TVP7NaDRbZ | DAZN | Channel 4 pic.twitter.com/0y4xJHMUpI
— OKTAGON MMA (@OktagonOfficial) November 4, 2023
After losing to Staines in the finale, Frimpong took two more wins under the Oktagon banner before he made light work of an unknown fighter on the regional scene by the name of Dylan Mitchin, whose profile would later be flagged by Tapology. When Paul Reed, Pimblett’s strength and conditioning coach, got into a back and forth with Frimpong on a post the Irishman made regarding the bout, Pimblett was incensed.
“He commented on it saying this is embarrassing,” Pimblett revealed later in a video posted to his YouTube channel. “And Denis put back to him, ‘You stick to S and C, old man. Leave the fighters to fight.’ That was it. I went at him, I couldn’t help it. We kept going back and forth, I ended up saying, come on, let’s get a spar on. Let’s do it.”
It didn’t take long to settle on a date, but shortly after agreeing to it, Frimpong was contacted by Oktagon.
“Two days before we were meant to have this gym fight, I get a contract sent out for Robin Frank,” he says. “I’ve got a baby on the way too, so I can’t afford to miss out on an actual pay check. Things got hectic. I didn’t know if they were going to land up and things would just descend into a 60-man brawl. I had no idea what would happen.”
Admittedly reluctant to sacrifice income, Frimpong still agreed to settle the score. That Saturday morning, his thoughts of a mass brawl weren’t put to bed as scores of Scousers arrived ahead of time to make sure they had a good view of the unsanctioned bout.
“There were probably 60 or 70 Scousers in there," Frimpong says. "The place was rammed!”
Soon the golden-haired wonder boy of the U.K. scene arrived. With no rules ironed out just yet, Frimpong surveyed his adversary to get an idea of the field of play.
Pimblett put on six-ounce gloves, so he did the same. Pimblett put on shin guards, so Frimpong put on shin guards. Just before the action began, a fair-play man was issued for each side of the bout. There would be no elbows or knees allowed. Both agreed that they would fight until someone either quit or was knocked out.
“In my head, honestly, I was thinking, ‘He has way more to lose than I do. If I go and knock this guy out, this thing is going viral.' That’s what I was thinking,” says Frimpong. “And to be fair, I knew even if I lost, I would be testing myself against a ranked UFC fighter.”
The ordeal lasted a little over five minutes. After three minutes of trading strikes, Pimblett shot for a takedown. Two minutes later he secured a rear-naked choke. Frimpong tapped, and when Pimblett failed to let go of his fully locked lion-tamer, the fair-play men stepped in to pry his arms apart.
Soon after, screens were lighting up across the world with images of the prolonged choke and the commotion of the aftermath.
For the diehard fan base, it harkened back to the days of Rickson Gracie’s gym smokers and Kimbo Slice’s illicit meeting with Boston police officer Sean Gannon. For others, Pimblett’s failure to let go of the choke was the subject of outrage. Frimpong, however, had no issue with it.
“It’s not like he choked me out and then stomped on my head!” he says with a launch. “People were talking as if he bottled me after that choke. Honestly, I have way less of an issue with going out to a choke rather than suffering an injury that would cost me my upcoming fight … and besides, I didn’t even go out!”
To add to that, the confrontation seems to have ended the beef between the two fighters.
“Me and Denis have shook hands, it’s done,” Pimblett said in the aftermath.
Frimpong agrees: “It needed to happen to resolve the situation. It did change my opinion of Paddy, I can’t lie. I didn’t think he’d show up because he had so much to lose. I thought he was calling my bluff, so you’ve got to respect that.”
Seven weeks later, in March, Frimpong handed undefeated German prospect Robin Frank his first career defeat. He noted a huge upsurge in eyeballs ahead of his win, and he’s sure there will be even more intrigue surrounding his next bout at Oktagon 71, when he faces Arijan Topallaj.
And while it may be for selfish reasons, he will be hoping for a Pimblett win at UFC 314.
“It reflects a lot better on me if he goes in there and he finishes Chandler in the first round, so yeah, maybe I do want him to win,” he says. “Maybe I want him to win the belt, clear out the division and they can bring me in like they did with Alex Pereira! Let’s be honest, the UFC love a storyline, don’t they?”
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