UFC lightweight Dan Hooker has been in there with the best of the best — but isn’t exactly eager to share the cage with Paddy Pimblett.

Pimblett takes on his fourth UFC assignment on Saturday night in Las Vegas when he tangles with experienced 155-pounder Jared Gordon in a fight which is billed as the former Cage Warriors champion’s biggest test to date. But while Hooker says that he is a legitimate admirer of Pimblett’s rise through the lightweight ranks, he isn’t exactly banging the table for his own showdown with ‘The Baddy’.

“I think he’s a great guy,” said Hooker in the latest episode of TheMacLife’s Pub Talk with Oscar Willis. “I like his persona, I like everything. Very aggressive, puts on entertaining fights but let’s all be honest, he’s getting taken care of, you know what I mean? He’s not getting tough matchups just yet.”

Pimblett has so far fought Luigi Vendramini, Rodrigo Vargas and, most recently, Jordan Leavitt, earning finishes in each but has yet to take on anyone close to the top 15 in the UFC’s shark tank lightweight division. Hooker, by contrast, has shared the cage with the likes of Arnold Allen, Michael Chandler and current champion Islam Makhachev, and says that if UFC matchmakers made the mistake of pairing him with Pimblett that it would be a bloodbath.

“I wouldn’t want to fight him. I like him,” Hooker explained. :I don’t want to fight him and make him look silly. I don’t want to burst the bubble and that’s just being honest. I think that’s a bad move. Hand on my heart, I think I do whatever I want to that kid.

“He’s on a good trajectory, leave him alone,” he added. “Give him the fights that you’re gonna give him, [I’m] not the fight. I like the kid. Let’s leave him. I know he’s talked sh*t about me in the past and I’m just like, I’m not that easy to rile up.”