Daniel Zellhuber feels he’s bound to cross paths with UFC star Paddy Pimblett.
Zellhuber, a Mexican star in the making, has a feeling he’ll meet the Englishman in the octagon in the near future, as he climbs the ranks of the stacked 155-pound UFC division. “Golden Boy,” who’s on a three-fight win streak, returns Sept. 14 against Argentina’s Esteban Ribovics on the main card of UFC 306, which goes down at Sphere in Las Vegas.
Zellhuber (15-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) is by no way underestimating Ribovics, but he’s confident he’l get his hand raised and has no problem looking in the horizon at a potential bout with Pimblett.
“I think so,” Zellhuber told MMA Junkie in Spanish when asked about if he thinks he’ll eventually fight Pimblett. “With a victory on September 14, like I told you, if things go down the way I envision them, next year I’ll be fighting against someone in the rankings. Depending on how (Pimblett) does in his next fights, we could be fighting for a position in the rankings. I don’t see that very far out.”
Zellhuber thinks Pimblett has been picking out his opposition in his time with the UFC. However, now in the UFC official rankings, Zellhuber doesn’t think Pimblett will get to do that much longer, which could prompt a fight between the two.
“If you look, now that he’s in the rankings, he’s still challenging fighters who are good matchups for him,” Zellhuber said. “He’s challenging Renato Moicano and those type of styles that favor him. I ask myself when he’s going to challenge a Fiziev or a Benoit Saint-Denis because those are the tough fights of the division, and I don’t see him challenging any of them because he’s not dumb.
“Also, as long as his fan base is still big, the UFC is going to look out for him a bit, but sooner or later he won’t have anywhere to run.”
Pimblett punched his ticket into the UFC official rankings by quickly dispatching veteran King Green at UFC 304 in July. While many were impressed with Pimblett’s showing, Zellhuber saw something different.
“I think that performance was horrible,” Zellhuber said. “I saw him come out doubtful. I was him to come out with terrible striking. He did capitalize well, I’ll give him that. He capitalized on Bobby Green’s mistake – which I don’t know why after 30 fights, he decides to shoot on a fighter whose only advantage over him was on the ground.
“But anyway, those things happen and this fight game is very unpredictable. Anything can happen, anything can change in a second. Like you said, this opens up the rankings and I would like to fight against Paddy Pimblett in the main event if the UFC returns to Mexico next year. They always have him fight at home, so it would be nice to see him step in enemy territory. If not, I’d still like to headline the event in Mexico next year.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 306.
