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Paddy Pimblett is currently recovering from shoulder injuries he suffered prior to his UFC 296 win over Tony Ferguson.
But by this summer, Pimblett is ready to face the fighter that recently called him out: Renato Moicano.
“That is who I want next,” Pimblett said on his YouTube channel. “Renato Moicano — ‘Money’ Moicano — you owe me money, lad. I’m coming for you, little sausage.”
Moicano called out Pimblett for a showdown on his home soil at UFC 301, which takes place May 4 in Rio de Janeiro. Pimblett responded that such a timeframe isn’t possible.
“I saw something the other day on Twitter … I’m meant to be fighting Renato Moicano at UFC 301,” the U.K. star said. “No, no. My kid’s going to be about two weeks old. I’m not fighting that soon. I won’t be fighting until, like, June or July.”
Pimblett said his shoulders are still sore from the injury that he suffered. Paul Reed, the UFC lightweight’s strength and conditioning coach, said he suffered multiple labral tears, one of which was “quite extensive.” Thus most of Pimblett’s work has consisted of recovery exercise.
Pimblett is no stranger to injury layoffs. He suffered an ankle injury in a controversial decision win over Jared Gordon at UFC 282 and spent most of 2023 on the mend. He said his shoulder injury took place in camp while training for the bout with Ferguson.
“I went into that last fight injured, but I never said nothing, I just got on with it,” Pimblett said. “I’m back in the gym, training in the new year. My shoulders are still sore even after two, three weeks off, so I got them looked at, had an MRI on both. I’ve got a tear in both shoulders, so all I’ve done for the past month is lots of kicking.”
Pimblett is on a four-fight winning streak. A win over Moicano would allow him to crack the UFC’s top-15 rankings, where the Brazilian currently sits at No. 13. (Moicano is ranked the same in the MMA Fighting Global Rankings.)
Moicano most recently appeared in the octagon at UFC Vegas 85, where he outpointed fellow vet Drew Dober in a grinding fight. Afterward, he revealed his plan to get Pimblett to fight him.
“If I go over that and I say, ‘Hey, Paddy Pimblett, I’m going to beat you up,’ everybody does that,” Moicano said on The MMA Hour. “So I said, ‘OK, I’m going to make him get the bait.’ Because if I beat Drew Dober and I say Drew Dober will beat you, he’s going to get mad, because he’s going to say, ‘Hey, I can beat you. You beat Drew Dober.’ So at the end of the day, ‘Money’ Moicano is winning again. This is chess, not checkers.”
From Pimblett’s response to Moicano, it looks like the Brazilian’s plan is coming to fruition. Below is Pimblett’s full video blog.
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