Jamie Mullarkey put on an incredible performance in front of his home crowd this past weekend at UFC 284. ‘The Hooligan’ was patient and calculated and gave a rude awakening to Francisco Prado in his UFC debut, showing there are levels in the big leagues.
However, the Aussie was still cautious enough to not let the 20-year-old fighter implement his game plan since Prado was looking to make his mark in his UFC debut.
“Coming into this fight was a chance for me to show my skills. I’ve been in a couple of wars lately, not to say there weren’t skills shown in them. I call them like a skilful brawl, technical brawl, so to speak. But yeah, Francisco man, he’s like a young hungry lion, and I didn’t want to give him the chance, coming in exchanging wild. It was hard to actually reframe myself from doing that at times, especially in front of the home crowd. They wanted to see the classic ‘Hooligan’, but we just wanted to show the skills in this fight and show the levels, not give him a chance to be in this fight, so we did exactly that,” Mullarkey said in his post-fight interview.
With Mullarkey now on a 2 fight-winning streak, the Aussie is already looking ahead for his next fight in the Octagon by calling out the high-profile fighter, Paddy Pimblett. ‘The Hooligan’ sees an opportunity to propel himself forward in the lightweight division after Pimblett’s recent performance in the octagon and is confident that this fight will be a banger.
“I think it’s a good fight, and I think it’s a high possibility that the fight could happen. I’ve got my Irish heritage, ‘The Hooligan’ vs ‘The Baddy’ man, like don’t tell me that’s not an exciting fight. Put that on a card that’s going to wreak havoc. I know it would.”
However, in all his professional bouts, Mullarkey has 10 knockout victories under his belt and is looking to shatter the belief that scousers don’t get knocked out.
“100% I see that chin up in the air every single fight and just ahh, lick my lips.”
This fight now marks Mullarkey’s fourth win inside the UFC octagon. His professional record now stands at 16 wins and 5 losses.
