MMA superstar turned analyst, Chael Sonnen has carefully observed the long-running feud between Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett. He believes that the recent online trash-talk could very well turn into a real fight as tensions between the two began as early as 2022.
“The Baddy” has frequently tried to reignite his beef with Topuria. In one of his recent interviews, he called the reigning featherweight champion a ‘midget’, and showed interest in fighting the Georgian if he moves up to 155 lbs.
Pimblett also believes that Alexander Volkanovski clearing the featherweight division helped Topuria quickly grab the belt, and he'll likely be overwhelmed by his opponents' size at lightweight.
"The American Gangster" finds this callout interesting because it has all the potential to produce a great fight given the very real bad blood between the two fighters. Here's what he said on the matchup in a recent video on his YouTube channel:
Paddy the baddy is willing to welcome Ilia Toporia to 155 pounds. Now, it's not Paddy's first choice because Ilia is not a big enough name but he will do it because of the hand sanitizer incident—he wanted to give him a beating back then, so he will just delay that desire to whip Ilia Topuria until now at 155 pounds. Even though Ilia doesn’t quite have the name recognition now, I summarized, okay?
The former title challenger thinks Pimblett might be trying to get the match with “El Matador” at the perfect time. The featherweight champ has expressed his desire to move up a weight class to challenge lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, who, interestingly, seems reluctant to hand out a title shot to another featherweight champ right away.
So, having Pimblett welcome Topuria to the lightweight division might be win-win for all the parties involved.
But, from a performance standpoint, that’s great. That is great stuff by Paddy to declare that he is willing to do a favor for the world champion—stay in your weight class, fight for a world title, activate the participation clause of your contract, the only clause that you can have in MMA that can make you millions of dollars in one night. Leave all of that to come up to 155 over a personal feud where no title is on the line, no legacy is on the line.
Because of their infamous alteration in 2022, Sonnen is confident that Pimblett vs. Topuria is certainly not a far-fetched dream:
But we do have this incident with the hand sanitizer, and you know what? They do have unfinished business. I remember that night very well.
Although he's never fought at lightweight, knocking out Volkanovski and Max Holloway in back-to-back fights has skyrocketed Topuria's popularity. On the flip side, Pimblett's biggest wins are Tony Ferguson and King Green, and fans are still doubtful of his potential since the controversial Jared Gordon fight.
MMA superstar turned analyst, Chael Sonnen has carefully observed the long-running feud between Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett. He believes that the recent online trash-talk could very well turn into a real fight as tensions between the two began as early as 2022.
“The Baddy” has frequently tried to reignite his beef with Topuria. In one of his recent interviews, he called the reigning featherweight champion a ‘midget’, and showed interest in fighting the Georgian if he moves up to 155 lbs.
Pimblett also believes that Alexander Volkanovski clearing the featherweight division helped Topuria quickly grab the belt, and he'll likely be overwhelmed by his opponents' size at lightweight.
"The American Gangster" finds this callout interesting because it has all the potential to produce a great fight given the very real bad blood between the two fighters. Here's what he said on the matchup in a recent video on his YouTube channel:
Paddy the baddy is willing to welcome Ilia Toporia to 155 pounds. Now, it's not Paddy's first choice because Ilia is not a big enough name but he will do it because of the hand sanitizer incident—he wanted to give him a beating back then, so he will just delay that desire to whip Ilia Topuria until now at 155 pounds. Even though Ilia doesn’t quite have the name recognition now, I summarized, okay?
The former title challenger thinks Pimblett might be trying to get the match with “El Matador” at the perfect time. The featherweight champ has expressed his desire to move up a weight class to challenge lightweight champion Islam Makhachev, who, interestingly, seems reluctant to hand out a title shot to another featherweight champ right away.
So, having Pimblett welcome Topuria to the lightweight division might be win-win for all the parties involved.
But, from a performance standpoint, that’s great. That is great stuff by Paddy to declare that he is willing to do a favor for the world champion—stay in your weight class, fight for a world title, activate the participation clause of your contract, the only clause that you can have in MMA that can make you millions of dollars in one night. Leave all of that to come up to 155 over a personal feud where no title is on the line, no legacy is on the line.
Because of their infamous alteration in 2022, Sonnen is confident that Pimblett vs. Topuria is certainly not a far-fetched dream:
But we do have this incident with the hand sanitizer, and you know what? They do have unfinished business. I remember that night very well.
Although he's never fought at lightweight, knocking out Volkanovski and Max Holloway in back-to-back fights has skyrocketed Topuria's popularity. On the flip side, Pimblett's biggest wins are Tony Ferguson and King Green, and fans are still doubtful of his potential since the controversial Jared Gordon fight.
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