Paddy Pimblett has thrown down the gauntlet to his old for Ilia Topuria.
Pimblett, who is undefeated in his UFC tenure to date at 7-0 (23-3 overall), is one of a handful of candidates jockeying for position to be named as the first contender to Topuria’s lightweight championship, which he claimed in a bout opposite Charles Oliveira in June after the former champion, Islam Makhachev, vacated the championship ahead of a pursuit of welterweight gold.
The Liverpool man has a baked-in rivalry with Topuria stemming from a fracas at a hotel in the UK ahead of a UFC event several years ago. The incident, footage of which was leaked to social media at the time, showed the two angrily exchanging words before Pimblett launched a bottle of hand sanitser at Topuria — later nicknaming him ‘hand sanitiser boy’ as a result.
And according to eldoberdanMMA Pimblett would relish the opportunity to take on hometown favourite Topuria in Spain.
“I want to fight Ilia, whenever, wherever,” Pimblett said, as noted by MMA Fighting. “I’d love to come to Bernabéu and punch your face in. Do it in Spain in front of your fake countrymen because you’re really German. I’d love to come and punch your face in in front of 90,000 people in the Bernabéu in enemy territory for me because the Bernabéu is a shithole.”
The Bernabéu is the home stadium of arguably the biggest football team in the world, Real Madrid, and for which Topuria is a longtime supporter.
“I can see so many ways that I finish him,” Pimblett, a noted Liverpool fan, said.
“Everyone thinks that on the feet it would be a one-sided fight. I can see myself knocking him out. Kicks and knees and elbows. I’m not going to do what Charles did and come out and have a boxing match with him, because I know he’s a very good boxer. I respect his hands, I respect him as a fighter, he’s very good. But once I get on top of him, he wouldn’t get back up, he wouldn’t be able to. I’d elbow him that many times that he looks like The Elephant Man.
“That’s the thing, when I fight him, he’s never fought with emotion before,” Pimblett added. “He goes into every fight calm and calculated. With me, I’m already in his head. He’s not going to fight me like he fights everyone else. He’s going to try and take my head off and he’s going to get his head took off in the process.”
But with other fighters like Justin Gaethje and Arman Tsarukyan also well-positioned for a title bout, Pimblett says that his next fight will either be for the title or a title eliminator.
“I just want to fight anyone ranked above me, really,” he explained. “If it’s not Ilia, I want a No. 1 contender fight, but I obviously want Ilia. He’s got the belt. He’s who I want to fight. I want to fight for a world title. I want to be the UFC world champion, so saying I want anyone other than Ilia is just stupid. Before he won the belt, I thought I would have to have one more and I thought it would be a No. 1 contender fight with Justin, but then he said he didn’t want to fight me. So I just want to fight Ilia.”
