Paddy Pimblett: 'I get laughed at for it, but I know I beat Ilia Topuria'
Paddy Pimblett: 'I get laughed at for it, but I know I beat Ilia Topuria'
Laugh all you want, but Paddy Pimblett is adamant he can beat Ilia Topuria.
Pimblett (23-3 MMA, 7-0 UFC) sees a fight with fellow UFC star Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) as inevitable. What started as a scuffle in London in March 2022 has now led to potentially one of the biggest fights the UFC could make. Topuria recently went off on Pimblett and said he'd be open to fighting because he "hates" him.
Pimblett is on the cusp of title contention after a dominant finish of Michael Chandler at UFC 314, and Topuria will battle Charles Oliveira for the vacant lightweight belt in the UFC 317 headliner on June 28.
"If Ilia wins and says he wants to fight me, the UFC will make that fight," Pimblett said of Topuria on Aspinall's YouTube channel. "Because they know it's a money fight. That's one of them fights where they'll do a f*cking world press tour like McGregor-Aldo."
Topuria has never lost in his professional MMA career. After starting out with seven consecutive submission wins, Topuria has leaned on his striking during his UFC featherweight title run. He is coming off back-to-back knockouts of Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway.
"I know I'd beat him," Pimblett said of Topuria. "Funny because I get laughed at for it, but I know I'd beat him. We've already talked about game plans to beat him, and I know how to beat him. No one goes for his weaknesses when they fight.
"Everyone just decides to have a boxing match with him. I'm not going to come out and have a boxing match with him. I am going to beat him with my all-around MMA game. As I said, I know I'd beat him, and I reckon I'd proper hurt him and just shut everyone up even more like I love to do."
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