AEW champ MJF goes back and forth with ‘dollar store Conor McGregor talking’ Paddy Pimblett

Newly crowned AEW world champion MJF has always had the gift of gab and nobody — including UFC lightweight fighter Paddy Pimblett — is immune to it.

On Tuesday, MJF took to social media to share a screenshot from an internet exchange between himself and Pimblett, where “The Baddy” challenged him to a “real fight,” which MJF seemed to accept when AEW heads to London for the first time in 2023.

Check out the screenshot below.

After Pimblett suggested that MJF wouldn’t be able to pass a USADA test for a matchup inside the octagon, the AEW world champion — who told MMA Fighting in 2020 that he has a boxing background — fired back.

“Unlike you, I’m 100 [percent] natural and I’m also 100 [percent] original,” MJF stated. “You’re dollar store Conor McGregor talking, Will from Stranger Things looking ass wouldn’t last two seconds in my world. See you in London.”

MJF admits he’s not the biggest MMA fan, but he is tapped into what’s going on in the sport and tries to catch the biggest events as they happen. A true student of the pro wrestling game, MJF — like many others — believes MMA’s roots, most notably with the storytelling and rivalry building, comes from what has made pro wrestling a massive success over the years.

“The word I’d use is ‘stealing,’” MJF told MMA Fighting in November 2020. “That is exactly what MMA has done and they’ve done it very well, don’t get me wrong. I believe Bellator, UFC, and all of these companies should be very proud of themselves, PRIDE back in the day. I genuinely love what they’re doing but at the same time I feel that’s what AEW’s doing. I believe that when we’re doing it right, we’re presenting professional wrestling as sport.

“Even though sometimes when we are on screen I like to have a little bit of fun. I like to do whatever the f*** I want if I’m being completely blunt because I can. But at the end of the day when it’s go time, it’s sport-based professional wrestling and that’s because professional wrestling is a sport and it’s meant to be a sport. I might be singing and dancing one week, but the next week if I want to I can bite somebody’s nose off and absolutely break them in half in the wrestling ring.”