Love him or hate him, Paddy Pimblett is one of the biggest stars in the UFC.

England's "Baddy" is on the cusp of shedding his prospect label and becoming a ranked contender as he's long-planned. To do so, Pimblett has to get through King Green (formerly Bobby) at UFC 304 in Manchester on July 27.

A win for the former Cage Warriors champion would extend his winning streak to eight straight (5-0 in UFC, 21-3 overall) and make him more valuable than he's ever been. The timing couldn't be any better from a financial perspective as Pimblett recently revealed to MMA Junkie that the Green matchup is the last on his contract. Therefore, it’s possible we see the 29-year-old test himself elsewhere afterward.

“It goes without saying: I wouldn’t want to go to a different organization,” Pimblett said. “UFC is the cream of the crop. It’s the main place. When you say to people, ‘I do MMA.’ Most of them go, ‘What’s that?’ You say, ‘UFC.’ People don’t even know what MMA is. They know what UFC is. You never know, though. Some of these stupid YouTubers who are boxing could end up offering me millions to end up fighting one of them. So we’ll see what happens.”

Pimblett has made it clear that he didn't want to fight Green in his follow-up performance to defeating Tony Ferguson in December. Watching closely during UFC 300 in April, Pimblett liked the idea of a fight against Green's fellow victor that night, Renato Moicano, rather than Green himself.

Moicano scored a second-round comeback TKO over Jalin Turner on the night which led to a callout of Pimblett. The UFC had other plans as Moicano is now expected to face Benoit Saint Denis at UFC Paris in September.

After everything gets sorted between the two, Pimblett hopes a high-profile treatment could be given to such a pairing.

“Obviously, if I fight again this year, then I’m going to want to fight someone else and get in the rankings, and I’m going to want to fight someone higher up in the rankings,” Pimblett said.

“Me and Moicano have had a little back-and-forth. I’d love to fight Moicano. I think it would be absolutely hilarious to do a season of The Ultimate Fighter with him. I think that would be one of the best seasons they’ve ever done. We’ll see what happens. This is the last fight on my contract, so we’ll be getting back to the renegotiation table after this. So we’ll see what happens.”

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LET’S WATCH

MMA Fighting’s José Youngs chats with Dustin Poirier.

UFC: Saved by the bell highlights.

Super RIZIN 3 hype.

A Day in Tom’s Life Ep. 4

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MORNING MUSIC

Go to Twitter, use the #MorningReport hashtag, or find one of my tweets with it, and drop me a jam you’re currently really into. I’ll pick the best one alongside my daily choice and give you a shoutout! You can also share in the comments below — those are just harder to sift through sometimes!

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SOCIAL SCROLL DOWN

Got ‘eem.

Heard that before.

Whatever it takes.

I don’t remember it happening like that.

Not necessarily.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Song Kenan (20-8) vs. Ricky Glenn (22-8-2); UFC 305, Aug. 17

Adrian Lee (1-0) vs. Nicolas Cornejo (2-0); ONE 168, Sept. 6

Sumiko Inaba (7-1) vs. Keri Melendez (6-0); Bellator San Diego, Sept. 7

Oumar Sy (10-0) vs. Da Woon Jung (15-5-1); UFC Paris, Sept. 28

Ciryl Gane (12-2) vs. Alexander Volkov (38-10); UFC 308, Oct. 26

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FINAL THOUGHTS

It would be a decent statement to see Pimblett go elsewhere after his next fight. No matter what, I doubt it would be a permanent departure from the UFC.

Happy Friday, gang. Thanks for reading! Have a great weekend and we’ll see you Monday.

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EXIT POLL

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