Transcription
All right, guys. I am joining you through Zoom because, for some reason, uh, Streamyard failed us. But this man was kind enough to stick around and, multiple times, try to join me here on Submission Radio, uh, to make his big debut on the program. Of course, the man behind Next Generation MMA Liverpool and fighters such as Patty Pimble, Paul Ri, welcome to Submission Radio.
Man, this is fun, right? Zoom. Little bit different.
Little bit different to you, Sean?
Yeah, nice one for me.
Yeah, man. It's a pleasure. Hey, I want to get into the big fight on the weekend. Ilia Tapora went in there. We saw what he did to Charles Olivivera. Did you expect the fight to go the way that it went?
To be honest with you, yeah, I did expect that fight to go the way that it went. I think, um, I don't think Charles approaches many fights very differently for people, if that makes sense. At the he kind of has that same style that he tries to implement in every fight, and I think that was the wrong style for earlier.
H you know it's interesting. Uh, Patty Pimblelet, he was on the Versus podcast, and I had a graphic that I was going to put up, but unfortunately, we're doing it through Zoom. So I'm trying to sort of get all the things going, but he basically said, and this is uh, the quote, "the game plan. What are you doing standing in the middle and swinging punches with him?" This was his 47th pro fight, and he was going in there like an amateur. Are you surprised that Charles Olivera just went out there and kind of stood with Ilia? Were you expecting a different game plan?
I mean, he didn't come out and just stand with him. He he did try to initiate a takedown. Um, but I was surprised that he was just happy to walk into his punches, to be honest with you.
Yeah, I was quite surprised at that. Um, Ilia likes to walk people down, and you don't want to do that job for him.
Well, now dude, but it's pretty crazy, right? Like Alex Okinowski, Max Holloway, now we've got obviously Charles Olivera. What do you make of the three guys that Ilia was able to beat back to back? Like he's obviously number one ranked now, pound-for-pound.
All All them guys have been in a lot of wars over the years. Let's just put it that way. So, like, you know, you're talking about someone that's beaten champions. And to beat champions, you have to have fights where you've fought the best in the divisions. And all of them guys have had a lot of hard fights over the years. And a lot of them had had heavy knockouts around the time of, well, they were due to fight Ilia, should we say? You know what I mean? So, kind of like I do get that, um, that Ilia is a knockout artist, but he's not knocking out guys that haven't been knocked out, if that makes sense. Um, I I do really rate IA and I do of his power, and we will not underestimate him at all, but like I think in 20 six 25 prof 26 professional fights, Patty's never left the cage with a black eye.
Right. What what do you make of him being ranked number one pound for pan? Is he pan-for-pan for you, number one?
Well, he wasn't. And then he beat Charles, which makes him pound-for-pound number one. He's the only person who's got two belts at the minute, if you know what I mean. Like, out of the the two fights that were offer, if if we were offered the two fights of Ilia and Kabib, I would be more worried about the Kabib fight than the Ilia fight. If you were guys were getting ready for Islam, for example, rather than getting ready for Ilia Islam, sorry.
Yeah.
Yeah. You'd be more concerned for Islam.
I'd be more concerned for the Islam fight, to be honest with you.
Yeah. You know what I mean? Um, Islam for me is the the guy in the division, the undefeated guy in the division. Do you feel like if he was to fight Islam, you feel like Islam would beat Ilia?
That's different thing. I'm not talking about Islam versus Ilia. I'm talking about either them two versus Paddy, if that makes sense. You know, I'm I'm looking at like which which fights are going to be um more technically troubling. Can you can you sort of shed some light? Why is that? What is it about Islam that sort of you believe makes him a harder challenge?
His experience, his experience in the division, to be honest with you, fighting a lot more lightweights, I would say. Um, he is undeniably the best the best lightweight in the world, Islam. And now he's moved up to welterweight. You I think you'll you you'll get to see whether or not he can make the jump. I I believe that Ilia um could have had tougher fights for that belt, like Sukian or or or one of them guys, but we are where we are. And fortunately for us, the guy that he wants to fight is Paddy.
Yeah, I saw that. Did you see the Dickers Dupli video where he was saying you guys were fighting Justin Gate at UFC 319?
Yeah, I don't really give a crap about what videos or anyone says. I just literally wait for to get attacked off Patty's manager saying we've got this date and this is the opponent. Other than that, I don't listen to anyone.
Were you guys getting ready for Justin Gate for UFC 319?
No, it's not a thing. It's not not like I say, no one's no one's mentioned that name to us at all.
You know what? It could have been a name that potentially the UFC thought about before this fight even happened, like the Ilia Tapora fight, because now you went in the Patty went in the cage with Ilia. He did the face off. You shared the video. Patty predicted this, right? Like he said, "Oh, he'll probably call me into the ring and he'll call me a blonde bitch." It's exactly what happened. You're predictable, Elliot. That's what I'm saying. We know what's going to happen before it happens really with it.
What were you surprised at how the faceoff went in the octagon? Anything? Any pickups there?
One of the obvious pickups was is the difference in size, right? Like Patty is a lot bigger than Ilia. He's a lot bigger than I Seaporia. Um, but he's also better than Iaporia. That's the thing. That's what a lot of people don't see. Everyone just kind of like writes Patty off in every fight that he has. But, you know, we know what Patty is. Time for people to find out what that is.
Just for those people that are writing Patty off, what are they overlooking about Patty and what he's bringing into this Ilia fight if this is the next fight that the UFC lock in?
Because most fans are casuals. That's a thing. And most of them don't like or want Paddy to win. So they just come up with mad reasons why Paddy will not or won't do these things. They don't look at technical skill. Most most coaches don't look at technical skill in MMA. They think they do. They don't actually look at what's going on a lot of the time. So like I don't expect like say casual fans to kind of understand the intricacies of what makes Paddy good or what makes this other person good or anything that that sort of stuff. They just kind of see what they want to see in a vague sort of uh view. They be like, "Oh, Paddy will outgrapple Ilia." Okay, that's very vague. That's like super super vague. Ilia is going to knock Patty out. Oh. Oh, is he? Okay. How How is that going to happen? That's also vague. Do you know what I mean? Like people just make vague statements to other people like, "Oh, yeah. I see what you mean there." But realistically, they have no water, no weight in what they're saying. The um so like I said, I don't really listen to anyone about anything or opinions because everyone's got one. They're all different.
Kind of preview what that fight looks like on the feet because we saw so many improvements from Patty. He looked really good against Michael Chandler. And like you said, like a lot of people like, oh, like he'll take the way that he wins is if he takes Ilia Tapora's back. But on the feet, how would you see that the the exchanges go against Ilia Tapouya with Patty Pimpblelet?
Um, well, obviously, I see them going in Patty's favor because otherwise we wouldn't be train we wouldn't be training the way that we train to kind of take him out, but I mean, for example, you can look at Patty's last few fights to see that his distance management is like greatly greatly improved. You can see that he he hits a lot harder, and I got to give a ton of credit to the person that probably doesn't get the get the most credit for that, which is Ellis Hamson from the gym. Ellis is like one of the best striking coaches in the world. He understands perfectly how to get the best out of Paddy and and and the things that need to be worked on. And we've uh been working very very hard on him, and it's showing in all his fights. Everyone's saying how how can he improve so quick? How does he get better so quick? Well, like I say, you know, he is a student of the game. He is one of the hardest workers in the sport. Don't let the little bit of weight gain after a a big fight make what you think about him. All fighters do that. Just Patty's more public than a lot of the other fighters, so you see him more.
Is it just me or has he kind of he in the last fight looked like he really grew into his frame? Like he's always been big for the division, but physically um how much stronger do you think he might be than I if they do fight next?
So Patty is strong, but he has other physical attributes that you don't know about until you feel them. I'm not going to go into what they are here, but I reckon Patty's the sort of person where someone will will come to spar or fight him and be like, "I want to do this to him." And then when they're in, they're like, "Wow, I couldn't do anything to him. He just was all over me." Okay. There's like different types of strength, and people don't kind of understand that. You have like isometric strength, you have like um just like raw muscle strength. There's a lot of different different types of strength that people have. And it's not just weight strength, okay? Otherwise, the the guy that lifts the most weights would be the best grappler or the the best wrestler, okay? It's not like that. Like, people have different different physical attributes that make make up how someone feels when you're grappling with them or when you're striking with them or whatever.
Dude, it's interesting as well because both guys have a bit of history. Obviously, they got into it a little while back. How how far ago did you guys start looking at Ilia Tap to Porya as a puzzle and start sort of get ready for him? Is this now going to be when you really start getting into the game planning and figuring him out? Because I get a feeling from you that you've sort of been keeping an eye on him for a while now.
We've already done it. We already knew this fight was going to be be coming about once Paddy broke the top 10 and Ilia talked about moving up to lightweight. We were already expecting this to happen. So, we've already been watching and working on for a while. The best thing for us is watching him fight more against lightweights. You know, Charles is a great one for us because he shows you kind of what not to do in a lot of fights. Um, so like like I say with the Chandler fight, we watched Charles fight Chandler, and then we used a load of stuff that Chandler Charles didn't do in that fight that he should have done and used that to make up the the victory in the last one. So, we just watched Charles fight Ilia now, and there's a lot of stuff you can see in the fight that you shouldn't do against Ilia. So, like I say, we we learn constantly.
So, you were able to pick up a few, it was a short fight, but you were able to pick up a couple of things from that one you can use going into this fight.
Yeah, there's it's it's information. It's like I say, it's it's knowing what you're kind of looking for in terms of um his weaknesses and stuff like that. You know, you everyone thinks like Ilia is this like unbeatable boogey bogey man that's like in the division that's like you should fear him and all that sort of stuff. But Patty's also fighting a long win streak. And I can tell you this right now, if you had to go and find a sparring partner that matches exactly what Paddy is and exactly what Ilia is, I'd be able to find a better Ilia than I can a Paddy. I can tell you that right now.
Do you feel like I pouya might be underestimating a little bit of what you guys are bringing into this fight? And that is what one of Patty's strengths is.
Please underestimate him. Please don't think he's going to do these things. Please think you're going to walk through him. It's just not going to happen.
Hey, in terms of timeline, what would be the ideal timeline for you guys to get this fight going?
Whenever Paddy's ready and he he wants to do it. I think I said he's ready to do it before the end of the year. Paddy will be ready to go before the end of the year. No problem.
This is kind of the fight that feels like it should be in a stadium, whether it be in the UK or Spain. Do you hope that the UFC kind of capitalizes, gets a big venue for It feels pretty historic this fight.
I hope the UFC give it the attention that it deserves and the promotion that it deserves and the the the venue and the timing that it deserves because it is a huge fight. The only other fight anyone was speaking about for the past year has been Jones Aspenol. OB that's been taken away from everyone. So, everyone wants a fight now where there's bad blood. Everyone wants a fight where like you get some answers, and they also want a fight where they see two people that haven't lost in a long long time fight each other till one of them loses.
Hey, I also want to ask obviously Patty's really big for the division. Do you foresee a a time one day in the future if you guys do become champion where you move up and give welter away to go or do you think the do you think the foreseeable future will be at lightweight for Patty?
Patty likes to achieve goals and set standards. So I don't see that being out of the window at all. But he's also not stupid. Like I seen Taporia saying after after I've defended this belt, I'm going to move up to welterweight. And I'm just like delirious. I think a lot of guys are like delirious about like jumping up weight divisions. Yet there's going to be guys in the weight division you can beat. Can you imagine like Ilia versus like Ian Garry? He would never get anywhere near him. He'd never get anywhere near him at all or Shavat or someone one of them guys. Like you're talking about like a guy that's like 5'6 fighting guys like 6'2. It's like ridiculous.
Oh, dude. Well, I can't wait for this fight to come together.
Hey, before I wrap up, I just want to find out from you. How do you see Patty Pimpblelet beating Helia Tapori in your mind as you think about this fight?
A bloody mess. That's what he's going to do. He's going to make his face a bloody mess. That's what I know is going to happen.
Awesome, dude. All right. Well, listen, it's all happening um as we as we wrap up. Congratulations. I mean, this has been building for a while. We've been waiting to see Patty get this big opportunity. Here it is. It's coming. What's your message to the fans? Maybe some of the doubters out there that don't really give Patty much of a chance in this one?
Um, just watch and wait and see what happens. That's it.
Awesome. Well, there he is. Paul Ra, of course. Check out Next Generation MMA in Liverpool. If you're down there, the account is below. You guys can follow him. I appreciate you, my friend. I can't wait for the fight to get locked in. Let's have another chat when he gets locked in.