Even before his emphatic win over Mike Wilkinson at ACB: Supersonic, Brendan Loughnane was adamant that a fight with Paddy Pimblett was still not off the cards, despite his contract negotiations coming to an end with Cage Warriors last year.

Last week, Loughnane revealed that he was in talks to fight Pimblett in an interview with Metro.co.uk.

When the talks initially came to an end last year, Pimblett was confident that Loughnane would re-open talks with Cage Warriors. Commenting on the Manchester fighter’s assertion that has been talking with the promotion, ‘The Baddy’ underlined his belief that Loughnane needs him more than he needs Loughnane.

“He’s come running back hasn’t he? He knows he’s nothing without me. I told you last year that he would come running back for this fight. I told you that he needed me and that proves it. I don’t need him, he needs me,” he said, ahead of his featherweight defence against Nad Narimani tonight at the Echo Arena.

“He’s acting like a proper little bitch. He’s like an ex girlfriend when you’ve just dumped them.”

The talk of looming UFC contract has never died down with Pimblett, but he isn’t sure where his future lies. While the Liverpudlian claims he sees fights as strictly business, he thinks Loughnane has a personal vendetta against him because he didn’t manage to secure the fight on his first attempt.

“I don’t know what makes more sense for me. I don’t really care who I fight next. It’s nothing personal. It’s business.

“It’s personal for Brendan now because he knows he might have missed the boat with me. Now he’s looking very desperate to everyone on the UK scene. As I said, he’s like that ex girlfriend that won’t go away.

“He’s like Charlotte from Geordie Shore. When Gav came home with another (girl), Charlotte stood there like a mug asking him, ‘What are you doing?’

“That’s what he’s like with me when I signed for another fight. He’s left standing there like a divvy.

“Who has he even fought? He’s fighting Eden Newton and Paul Cook. He bet some pony-kid on FCC for the belt who hadn’t even fought in about four years. I’m fighting a who’s who.

“Wilkinson could have beaten him. I’ve sparred Mike before and he’s a great fighter, but Brendan really wanted that fight to happen again because he had previously lost to Mike.

“Brendan took this fight at the right time and Mike took it at the wrong time.”

@PetesyCarroll