The UFC lightweight division has a grudge match in the making between two of its biggest stars. Newly crowned champion Ilia Topuria and rising contender Paddy Pimblett do not like each other.
Their rivalry began from online comments by Pimblett that led to a physical altercation at the fighter hotel in London during UFC Fight Night 204 fight week in March 2022. The two nearly came to blows at the UFC 282 Press Conference later that year.
Following Topuria’s UFC 317 knockout win over Charles Oliveira, Pimblett entered the cage to challenge “El Matador.” Their face-off ended with Topuria shoving “The Baddy.”
In his UFC 317 Octagon Interview, Topuria stated that he wanted to face Pimblett next. He reiterated that he wants Pimblett to be his first title defense during the UFC 317 Post-Fight Press Conference.
In an interview with “Verse Us with Eric Nicksick,” Pimblett explained the beginnings of their feud and his disdain for Topuria.
“When I first signed with the UFC, his friend, who is now being cut from the UFC because he is shite, Guram Kutateladze, or however you say his name. He just tweeted something at me and I just said back. He said like how welcome to the UFC. And I went, ‘Who the f**k are you talking to? You’re a fake Russian’ because he had a baldy head and the beard,” Pimblett recalled.
“Everyone went off on me. I was like, ‘What’s going on here?’ They don’t like being compared to Russians and obviously I fed on that. Like, one of them said something and I just said, ‘Shut up. No wonder the Russians terrorizes, or something like that. And then I went to bed and I woke up the next morning and my phone had blew up. I mean blew up,” Pimblett continued.
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Pimblett believes his comments were exaggerated, taken out of context, or got lost in translation.
“It still annoys me to this day because he even went on Rogan (The Joe Rogan Experience podcast) and said it to Topuria. He (Joe Rogan) said, ‘You know, Paddy says it’s good that Russia dropped bombs on Georgia and killed children.’ In ever said that. I never said anything like that,” Pimblett said.
“I’d never celebrate someone, people getting killed especially kids. And I don’t know. It must be a language barrier where I said terrorize but by ours that’s just like you’ve been bullied. Terrorize is just a word we use every day,” continued Pimblett. “I don’t know where the language barrier is you think that means war but if it is go and learn properly English Ilia because it’s not.”
Despite it being a miscommunication that set their rift in motion, Pimblett simply can’t stand the new lightweight champion.
“I hate him. I absolutely hate him. Like, I want to inflict pain on his life. You know what I mean? I’d like that fight to go 4 minutes and 50 seconds into the fifth round and I’ve landed 907 elbows and I’ve disfigured his face. I don’t want a quick knockout. I want to put him through pain.”
A match between the two will likely eventually happen. The question is whether it will be their next fight. Pimblett hopes so, but the decision rests with the fight promotion and its matchmakers.
“I’m game to fight him before the end of the year. I’m game to fight him next year. But we’ll see what happens. We don’t know what the UFC is going to do,” Pimblett said. “It’s not my decision. Ultimately it’s not his decision. It’s Dana [White], Hunter [Campbell], and Sean’s [Shelby] decision, but I think it’s the only fight to make.”
