Celebrity Big Brother winner Paddy Doherty has thrown down the gauntlet to The Only Way Is Essex star Mark Wright.
In what has to be one of the most unexpected celebrity tussles of the year, the Irish TV personality, 67, had some choice words about reality star Mark, 39, when discussing which famous faces he would like to face off in the boxing ring.
Although the pair don’t seem to be linked in any way, they did cross paths once in 2011 at the Bafta awards when Paddy was the star of hit reality show Big Fat Gypsys Wedding and Mark was at the height of his Towie fame. s
It seems, however, they got off on the wrong foot.
‘I met him at the awards, at the Baftas. He wasn’t rude to me I wouldn’t let him be, not in a million years, but he had that look, like “look at me”. You get it on, I’ll do it!’ he recalled in a new interview.
That same year, Paddy won his series of Celebrity Big Brother while Mark exited Towie stage left.
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Now, 15 years on, it seems the initial bad impression has bubbled into something more, and he’s ready to ‘knock him out’ in a spar.
He told The Sun: ‘I would love to fight Mark Wright; he’s cocky, arrogant, above himself, I’d love me and him in the ring. ‘I’m a lot older than him but I guarantee I’d knock him out in the first round.’
Whatever misgivings Paddy has about Mark, for now at least it seems to be one way, with the latter having never mentioned the professional boxer before.
As for who else Paddy would want to do a bout in the ring with, perhaps on better terms, is former model Calum Best, whom he’s worked with before. The pair starred in the 2012 reality series Celebrity Bainisteoi together.
Whether Mark squares up to Paddy remains to be seen, but for now he’s busy getting used to life as a new dad after his wife, Michelle Keegan, gave birth to their daughter, Palma, who was born in March 2025.
When asked about what it meant to be a father for the first time on his Heart FM radio show, he said it’s ‘hard to put into words’.
He continued: ‘It’s the biggest achievement of my life it’s all I think about but obviously hats go off to my wife she is an absolute super human, a superhero for bringing this baby into the world.
‘It makes you realise what our mums did for us and makes me have so much more respect than I already had and what women had to go through. It’s the best feeling in the world. I wake up every morning just so excited to see her face.’
Metro has reached out to Mark Wright’s representatives for comment.