UFC star Paddy Pimblett challenges 'bully' Mark Zuckerberg to a fight

Paddy Pimblett has been crowned the ‘new king of UFC’ by social media users after his victory over Kazula Vargas at UFC London.

And as it turns out, he’s already got a good idea of who he wants to fight next – and it’s probably not anyone you'd expect.

The Liverpudlian has taken the unusual step of challenging 'bully' Mark Zuckerberg to a fight after having his Instagram banned twice in the past.

Zuckerberg, of course, is one of the most influential figures online and owns Meta Platforms, which controls Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp.

Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter

After his victory on Saturday night, Pimblett was asked by Michael Bisping who he’d like to fight next and his answer was pretty clear.

"Mark Zuckerberg. I'm sick of you. You know what I mean, I'm sick of you," he said. "Show my Instagram. For all I do is help charities, and help people with mental health problems. You are the biggest bully in the world."

It comes after his account was suspended before the fight, after taking issue with the way that trolls were being tackled.

Speaking during the pre-fight conference for UFC London, he explained that he reported abusive comments aimed at young fans he was trying to help on the platform.

Discussing one young fan he'd been in contact with, he said: "The lad had never been to a football match before and his dad just died so I wanted to do something nice for him. So, people started commenting disgusting things about him.

“So, I had back and forths with them and then the last one was for little baby Lee... He's got brain tumor, cancer. He's got all sorts of things wrong with him and he's three years old. He's got no hair because of all the chemotherapy and some absolute disgusting piece of s*** commented something horrible about him.”

The fighter called Zuckerberg a 'bully'Getty Images

The fighter went on to say: “I've got morals... I reported the comment and I got it with a notification back twenty minutes later, 'This comment does not go against our community guidelines so we will not remove it'.

“So, then I called him a piece of s**t. I said 'You dirty piece of s**t. You are a piece of vermin on my shoe' and the next day my account was disabled."

Judging by his first round knockout against Vargas, no-one wants to be fighting Pimblett right now.

“I’m never, ever, ever, ever in a boring fight, lad,” Pimblett said after his victory – his second in the UFC, with his promotional debut last year also ending via first-round stoppage. “That was only about a five or 6/10. He caught me with a nice punch, I failed with the first takedown attempt. He did land a punch…

“See this arena, the O2? Too small, too small. Give me a stadium, get us to Anfield...”

Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.