Issue 215
March 2025
Dan Kelly gets the inside scoop from Denis Frimpong as he breaks down his gym clash with Paddy Pimblett and the rivalry that lit up the internet.
Not all fights happen under bright lights and in a big arena. This beef started with words, escalated with video, and ended with a scrap. The smoke began when Denis Frimpong competed on the Oktagon Challenge series, England vs Ireland, in 2023. This is where he created a rivalry with George Staines, Paddy Pimblett’s training partner. Both teams lived under the same roof, generating plenty of animosity, and Staines was emotionally impacted by things Frimpong said. Both men progressed to the final and faced each other at Oktagon 48, where Staines submitted the Irishman. The rivalry had seemingly been put to bed. Fast forward 15 months, and the incident left a bad taste in Paddy’s mouth, who wanted to give Denis a taste of his own medicine when it came to being a wind-up merchant. Several social media comments ensued between the pair, which led to Frimpong posting a call-out video. The rest was clickbait heaven for every fight fan.
THE OTHER SIDE
When asked to give his side of the story, Denis Frimpong seemed surprised at how things escalated.
“I never really knew me and Paddy had any beef, because I’d seen him a few times since the Oktagon challenge, and he kind of let onto me,” shrugged Frimpong. “So, I didn’t think there was beef there. Me and George were kind of cool about it and have spoken about training together, so I thought if he was cool about it then everybody else is cool about it, but he [Paddy Pimblett] obviously had an issue with it.”
Frimpong appreciates Paddy was just sticking up for his gym mates, with whom he has a close relationship.
“Which is fair enough. I get that he’s like the big brother of the gym [Next-Gen Liverpool]. I also went and said something online to Paul Reed, who is Paddy’s strength and conditioning coach, that was commenting on my fight videos and it just escalated from there with more words exchanged between myself and Paddy. We both have big egos. We’re both sh*t talkers, and after it had escalated, and one thing led to another.”
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WHAT ESCALATION LOOKS LIKE
When he says it led from one thing to another, he’s referring to the aforementioned call-out video. This clip was uploaded to Instagram, inviting the number twelve ranked UFC lightweight to Manchester for a straightener.’ Pimblett obliged, and a date was set. What followed was almost to be expected. Initially, Frimpong didn’t look out of his depth when exchanging strikes on their feet. However, it took only five minutes for the UFC star to get Denis in a rear naked choke, forcing him to tap. When Pimblett refused to let go, bodies piled in to separate the pair. After the footage went viral, Denis felt the incident had a positive effect.
“I think it’s done the whole north west mixed martial arts scene a world of good because historically, Manchester and Liverpool have all this beef. Whether it’s football, MMA, next gen, and top team, so there’s always been this kind of rivalry, and there’s always been a little bit of animosity.”
‘The Menace’ is accurate in how he describes the relationship between the north west cities and elaborates further.
“I’m not saying I’ve come and cured it all because it’s probably always still going to be there. But me and Shem Rock have been trying to get this link up going between the gyms. And now they’ve come to Manchester, and we’ve had it out. We’ve had our fair knock. I think they’re going to start coming up here to train, and we’re going to start going there. Everyone knows that top teams striking is next level and that next gens grappling is next level. So, I think with that link up, we can start training with each other rather than beefing with each other.”
PADDY’S PERSPECTIVE
What did Paddy have to say about the incident?
“He agreed to no tapping beforehand,” said Pimblett on X. “All you butthurt idiots who don’t know what you’re talking about just pipe down don’t talk when you don’t know the context. Not my fault he tapped like a (p***) when he was saying he was going to KO me on the feed and got outstruck.”
On his YouTube channel, Pimblett gave further insights into how it started from his perspective.
“He was bulling two of the lads who come to my gym, Jake and George. Who are like my little brothers. I train with them every day. I had something against him just for that anyway. As you’s all know, I don’t like bullies. And when he fought George in the final of the comp, he was saying mad stuff to George. Saying your grandma’s going to go to hell, well in hell because his grandma’s dead. All the stuff rubbed me up the wrong way. And then George beat him up for four rounds and subbed him in the fourth. That’s always been there in the back of my mind, annoying me that Denis was saying all stuff like that. But he joined Manchester Top Team. A year went by or something like that. He had a fight just before Christmas. Literally, he fought someone that they’d just pulled off the street. The kid was about six stone soaking wet. Denis won by TKO. Started celebrating like he just beat Islam Makhachev. My S&C coach, Paul Reed, who’s like my uncle. He commented on this saying this is embarrassing. And Denis put back to him, ‘You stick to S&C, old man. Leave the fighters to fight.’ That was it. Know what I mean? 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. At first, I was saying a neutral gym. And he was saying no. So, I just said, ‘Sound, I will come to your gym.’ I offered to go down there on New Year’s Eve. I said to him as well, ‘Lad, I’m going on holiday for two weeks. So, let’s do it before I go on holiday. And he said no.”
ORGANISED CHAOS
Paddy was willing to leave it alone but was further goaded into the fight.
“First day I’m on holiday, few on the 1st of Jan,” he said on YouTube. “On the 2nd of Jan, he puts up a video talking sh*t. While I’m sitting by the pool, just looking at my phone going, ‘Oh my god.’ You knew I was going on holiday for two weeks. And then you put this video up for some followers. And obviously, I was saying, ‘Don’t worry, lad, I’m going to come down. I said I get home on Thursday the 16th. Get home that morning. I’ll come to your gym the Saturday morning, the 18th. I seen Denis commenting back to a lot of people, saying, ‘Paddy won’t come. He hasn’t got the balls, this and that.’ And when I got home Friday morning, I messaged him saying ‘What’s happening? What time tomorrow?’ He messaged Ellis back, saying, ‘It’s not happening. I’ve got a fight coming up. I can’t risk getting injured. Blah Blah. I spoke to one of his teammates, who said, Pad, we’re not happy that he’s not doing it. We’re going to speak to him. And then three minutes after I got that message back off a fighter from Manny Top Team, Denis messaged me back saying, ‘Get down tomorrow. 12.’ And we both agreed we don’t stop until someone’s unconscious. Taps don’t count. Quitting to strikes doesn’t count. We just go until someone’s out cold. Got up drove to Manchester Top Team. We was in and out within 15 minutes. Walked in the middle. Said, ‘Let’s do this. To be honest, I think he gave me the choke. He stuck his neck out to give me the choke because he didn’t want to get flattened out and ground and pounded until he was unconscious. I took the choke. And as we all know, if you get choked unconscious, you just wake back up.”
THE AFTERMATH
Paddy has advice to other people based on this experience.
“A lot of people saying I’ve got no honor,” he said of the fight on his YouTube channel. “I’ve got no this, I’ve got not that. I’ve seen Denis in an interview since. If I would have knocked him unconscious, I would have jumped on him and landed a few more strikes. All is fair in love and war. I stood back up and went to the corner and just said, ‘Come ahead, let’s go again from the feet. You said you wanted to strike. Let’s go again from the feet.’ And Denis come over and said, ‘No, I’m done. I don’t want to go again.’ And we shook hands like men. Kids nowadays are too fast to grab knives and grab weapons and stab each other. And ruin their own life and the other person’s life, and both your families and friends. This is a good message for Weapons Down, Gloves Up. Don’t use weapons. If you’s have got a problem with each other, put a pair of boxing gloves on. Put a pair of MMA gloves on and have a fight. And at the end of it, you can shake each other’s hands and just like and me Denis did.”
These sage words come from a man who is fast becoming an icon for how he conducts himself in and out of the Octagon.
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TAP OUT DENIED
When Frimpong was asked about his final thoughts on Pimblett holding the choke, he let out the laugh of a man who had been asked this before.
“Those people that are bitching about it,” he paused. “I’m not really bothered because at the end of the day, if I’d of knocked him out, I’d of probably hit him with a few follow-up shots, but I’m not complaining about him holding the choke. It got broken up before I went unconscious, so it’s no harm, no foul.”
Frimpong hasn’t let the incident hold him back. He recently re-signed a multi-fight deal with the Czech/Slovak promotion Oktagon MMA and won his most recent fight.
“Clinical striking as expected. There was a couple of submission attempts, but I wasn’t really trying to finish him as my shoulder injury hindered that, but I’m not making excuses. I pushed through it, and I got there.”
A whirlwind start to the year for ‘The Menace,’ who looks to remain active before the birth of his first child is due in May, and although the rivalry may be over, the momentum in front of the cameras might just be getting started.
