Renato Carneiro believes Paddy Pimblett deserves at least “some respect”.
Carneiro is set to face Frenchman Benoit St. Denis on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 243 at the Accor Arena in Paris, with the Brazilian recently revealing that Pimblett and Dan Hooker are his top prospects for upcoming opponents.
Pimblett has consistently expressed interest in fighting “Moicano” regardless of the outcome of his bout with St. Dennis, while Carneiro has picked Hooker for the first time since “The Hangman” and Israel Adesanya picked Jalin Turner to beat “Moicano” at UFC 300. Carneiro made “The Tarantula” redeem himself for his failed walk-off knockout attempt, submitting him from behind in the second round.
Hooker had agreed to fight Carneiro, and the New Zealander ended up winning an upset split decision over Mateusz Gamrot at UFC 305 in August of this year, but Carneiro didn’t think Hooker would win that bout. “Moicano” was more impressed with Pimblett’s most recent submission win over Bobby Green at UFC 304 in July of this year.
“I’m very impressed. After the Bobby Green fight, I think Paddy Pimblett is a tougher opponent than Dan Hooker,” Carneiro told MMAFighting.com. “It would have been weird to say that back in the day, but now I’ve seen what Dan Hooker did to Mateusz Gamrot. He got caught a lot in the first round. And it was a close fight. I don’t think he won, but you look at the way Paddy Pimblett put Bobby Green out. Bobby Green is not an easy guy to submit. And the way he did it, kudos to Paddy Pimblett. I was one of the doubters, but he fought a great fight. He did a great job against Bobby Green. He deserves respect. Not a big deal, but he deserves respect.”