Paddy Pimblett thinks soccer kicks and grounded knees should be legal under unified MMA rules

Paddy Pimblett is vying for a UFC strap later this month, but his mindset was rooted in the glory days of Pride FC seemingly, as he spoke on some amendments he would look to see applied to the unified rules of mixed martial arts. Pimblett will battle former UFC interim lightweight champ and ex-BMF champ Justin Gaethje in the headliner of UFC 324 on January 24th.

The looming interim lightweight title challenger appeared on a recent vlog as a part of UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall’s YouTube channel and addressed several subjects. During the Aspinall conversation, with an excerpt of the chat posted by X account @RedCorner_MMA, Pimblett said,

“I don’t agree with stomping because your head’s got nowhere to go, but a soccer kick where someone’s sitting in guard and you can move the legs and kick them there, and knees to the head of the grounded opponent, so if someone shoots a sloppy takedown just to get a break, you should be able to knee them in the head.”

Paddy Pimblett on Ilia Topuria and the UFC lightweight title situation

It was apropos that Paddy Pimblett was talking to Tom Aspinall about not wanting to be caught in the position of an interim champion caught in limbo, with the divisional kingpin’s status being unclear. This was expressed by Pimblett, who faces Justin Gaethje for the interim 155-pound strap, while reigning lightweight champion Ilia Topuria’s timeline for a potential return is unclear due to personal issues.

While speaking to his fellow UK combat compatriot in Aspinall, ‘The Baddy’ mentioned that he has heard rumblings that Topuria can be out for around a year or maybe even two years, depending on whether things get particularly ugly with his personal situation involving his estranged former partner.

While the former Cage Warriors titleholder mentioned that he does want to test skills with Ilia Topuria at some point to show MMA fans he can beat the Georgian-Spaniard fighter, but that if Topuria were out for a prolonged period of time, it might be best for the title to be vacated to create more movement in the division for active fighters.