Ilia Topuria Wants To Humiliate Paddy Pimblett

Ilia Topuria vs. Paddy Pimblett has been brewing for a while now. The two fighters’ bitter rivalry started when they got into a scuffle at the fighter hotel in March 2022 ahead of that year’s UFC London event. Topuria went on to make his lightweight debut that weekend when he knocked out Jai Herbert in Round 2. Pimblett scored a first-round rear-naked choke on Kazula Vargas. Both fighters left good impressions in the Octagon that weekend.

Topuria, 28, has now managed to springboard past Pimblett despite having worked his way to championship status in the featherweight division first. In UFC 317’s main event. Topuria absolutely blitzed Charles Oliveira with a first-round knockout in their vacant title match up to become a two-division belt holder. The No. 8-ranked contender Pimblett entered the Octagon during the post fight interview. seemingly setting up an inevitable showdown between the two.

“Looks like I could be the champion before I even expected it,” Pimblett said on the UFC 317 post-fight show. “He’s got brilliant boxing, lad. He’s got very good hands. He’s got power. When he swings them hooks, you need to get the f*** out of the way.

“We’ve got history. You don’t even need to sell that fight. It sells itself. Two people who genuinely dislike each other. You don’t really get that. We haven’t seen that since like Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor, two people who actually hate each other. Because I hate him.