Exclusive: ‘I want to fight this year’

Paddy Pimblett hopes to bounce back from injury to “fight this year” in the UFC and is eyeing a bout against Matt Frevola in London next March.

Pimblett suffered a serious ankle injury during his win over Jared Gordon at UFC 282 in December 2022 and is still far from a full recovery.

But that hasn’t stopped him from setting his sights high when he returns to full fitness, as he explained in an exclusive interview with TNT Sports.

“I’d love to come back and fight someone in the top 15,” Pimblett said.

“But after the 10-month layoff, I think I’m going to have a fight to get back into the swing of things.

“Then you never know, see if Frevola wants to come to the O2 in March.”

Frevola has an 11-3-1 record in the lightweight division and is ranked at No. 14, most recently beating Drew Dober at UFC 288 in May.

“I want to fight this year,” Pimblett added.

“I want to fight before the end of this year and then again back in here [London’s O2 arena] next year in March, I want to be here.

“It depends, but if I can come back, I would love to fight Frevola there.”

However, when pressed on if he has started to have conversations about possible fights, Pimblett made it clear that he is still far from fighting fitness.

“Not at the minute, I want to get back in training, I can’t even go for a four mile run yet,” he said.

“I’m in the gym doing little bits of sparring. I’m getting back to full health.”

He added: “I’ve had basically a full new ankle, all artificial ligaments put in there.

“People keep asking me when I’m fighting and I don’t know, I couldn’t say yet.

“I’m waiting to get back over to America to get to the PI [UFC Performance Institute] to have a proper once-over on my foot and do some proper rehab on it.

“I’m having some visa complications, I’m waiting to get my visa.

“[Then] I can get some proper specialist work done to my ankle. I’ll have a better time frame then and know when I’m coming back, at the minute I don’t know.”

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