The fight between Paddy Pimblett and Joe Giannetti scheduled for tomorrow night’s Cage Warriors card has been called off.
The announcement came after Giannetti weighed in on Thursday at 163.8lbs for the lightweight fight, with the limit being 155lbs.
The American took the fight on nine days notice after Pimblett’s original opponent Donovan Desmae was forced to remove himself from the card due to injury.
The Liverpudlian took to Twitter to address the issue in a lengthy statement explaining what happened.
So what an eventful weigh in?I step on the scales at 154.7 like a true pro my opponent then steps on the scales at 163.8& then sits down& starts eating& drinking immediately didn’t even consider going in the sauna when if he wudda got to 160lbs all this cud have been avoided….
— Paddy Pimblett (@PaddyTheBaddy) November 21, 2019
It looks like the fight is going to be off as he was unwilling to do any sort of compromise to make any sort of weight all the best to joe in the future but my career is too important to get fucked over like this but he’s known he was gonna miss& not batted an eyelid sorry ppl??
— Paddy Pimblett (@PaddyTheBaddy) November 21, 2019
The American responded himself on twitter several times to address his side of the story, saying he tried all he could but physically couldn’t get the weight off despite sitting in a sauna for multiple hours without being able to sweat.
I tried being super respectful to Paddy and his team and explaining it's my fault, but it is short notice, I'll give them whatever they want, after the way they responded, I must say they're all trash???, #fightme ??♂️
— Joe Joe Giannetti ? (@Giannettimma) November 21, 2019
The pair embarked on a war of words on twitter after the weigh in with Pimblett calling Giannetti out on his professionalism and the American saying ‘The Baddy’ and his team were disrespectful to him and should at least acknowledge the attempt he made in less than two weeks.
Both Paddy Pimblett and Joe Giannetti spoke to MerseySportLive in the week and fan excitement for the fight was the highest on the card.
The event has been dealt a huge blow because of the incident.
Cage Warriors 111 will still go ahead tomorrow night at London’s O2 Indigo with James Webb defending his middleweight title in the main event against Nathias Frederick II.
The event can be watched on UFC Fight Pass.
Picture courtesy of Paddy Pimblett’s Instagram.
