Snooker star Ronnie O'Sullivan will test himself in the cage against Paddy Pimblett after accepting the UFC star's sparring challenge.
Fresh off of his win at UFC London, Pimblett was in attendance at the Venue Cymru in North Wales to watch O'Sullivan reach the Tour Championship semi-final by beating Mark Williams 10-9 in a thrilling clash.
O'Sullivan revealed he was in attendance for Pimblett's latest win and has agreed to spar 'The Baddy' when he next visits Liverpool. He said: “I am definitely going to try and do some sparring with him, when I next go to Liverpool he has told me I have got to get in the cage.
"I went to Paddy’s last fight in London at the O2 with Damien Hirst, because he is a huge fan of UFC and knows the big bosses. We were sitting front row watching Paddy and Molly McCann too, and it was a great night.
"I have got to know Paddy over the last few weeks. He is a super, lovely guy and is going to be a real superstar. Well, he is already really but he is going to be mega, he has that X-Factor. He just has an aura, everyone is talking about him. It was weird, my son was like ‘You went to the UFC, Paddy’s a legend’ and he loved it when I sent him a picture of us."
O'Sullivan is a big UFC fan because he feels the best fighters are always matched up to face each other, something that hasn't been the case in boxing because of the politics involved in the sport.
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“What I like about UFC over maybe even the boxing is that you will never get an easy route. You have to fight whoever they say you are going to fight. In boxing there is a lot of politics involved, and fighters get to fight certain fighters and avoid certain fighters," he added.
“So the public can be frauded that some are better than they really are because they avoid the real, proper fights. But in UFC that doesn’t happen so much, they know that if they want to be the guvnor then they have got to fight each other. That’s the one thing I really like."
O'Sullivan got to know Pimblett over breakfast the morning of his match against Williams, stating: “We had breakfast together in Llandudno on the morning of my match with Mark Williams, all my friends from Liverpool brought him down. There are a few of the lads, and we had a couple of beers afterwards.”
