Paddy Pimblett reveals truth behind gym spar where he choked out internet rival

Paddy Pimblett has shared new details about his controversial gym spar with an internet rival, including the agreement the pair made beforehand.

Two weeks ago the UFC star hit headlines after turning up to a rival gym to settle a personal score with Oktagon MMA fighter Denis Frimpong after an online beef.

Pimblett showed up at the Manchester Top Team gym and the two put on the gloves and engaged in a spar, with fighters and coaches filming the encounter on camera phones.

Pimblett soon took 'The Menace' to the ground and footage showed him locking in a rear naked choke which forced Frimpong to tap out.

However, 'The Baddy' refused to let go of the choke and others intervened as tempers threatened to boil over.

The Liverpudlian fighter replied to comments on social media to those criticising him for not letting go of the submission but has now decided to give complete context to the situation.

On his YouTube channel, Pimblett promised to "give the full story now" and "never going to speak about it ever again".

The 30-year-old claims that he took issue with how Frimpong was treating two teammates who he views as "little brothers" and then proceeded to go back and forth online.

"He was bullying two of the lads who come to my gym, Jake and George, who are like my little brothers," Pimblett explained.

"I train with them every day. I had something against him just for that anyway.

"As you all know I don't like bullies. And then when he fought George in the final of the comp, he was saying mad stuff to George - saying 'Your Grandma's going to hell' - well 'in hell' because his Grandma's dead.

"All that stuff rubbed me up the wrong way. We kept going back and forth. I ended up saying, 'Come on, let's get a spar on'. 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.

"First day I'm on holiday, flew on Jan 1 - on the second of Jan he puts a video up talking s*** while I'm sitting by the pool.

"I seen Denis commenting back to a lot of people saying 'Paddy won't come, he hasn't got the balls'.

"I spoke to one of his teammates who said they weren't happy that he's not doing it and 'we're going to speak to him'.

"Three minutes after I got a message off a fighter from Manny Top Team, Denis messaged me back saying, 'Get down tomorrow, 12'."

After the tear-up was arranged, the rivals agreed on a unique set of rules which meant there was only one way to secure the victory - hence Pimblett showing no mercy whatsoever.

He also claimed that he offered Frimpong, who defended Pimblett's actions, the chance to go again from a standing position but he declined.

He continued: "And we both agreed we don't stop until someone's unconscious - taps don't count and quitting to strikes don't count. We just go until someone's out cold."

"I got up, drove to Manchester Top Team. We were in and out within 15 minutes. [I] 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 pound until he was unconscious."

"I took the choke and as we all know, if you get choked unconscious you just wake back up. A lot of people saying I've got no honour, all is fair in love and war.

"I stood back up and went to the corner and said, 'Come ahead, 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.'"

Pimblett's last fight was in July when he defeated Bobby Green at UFC 304 to move to 6-0 in Dana White's promotion.

He is 12th in the UFC's lightweight rankings at the time of writing. Frimpong, who is 2-2-0 in MMA, is back in action in March when he takes on Robin Frank at Oktagon MMA.