Paddy Pimblett vs. Ilia Topuria is a fight that we could potentially see sooner rather than later according to a former two-division UFC title challenger. The bad blood between the two fighters over the years at one point seemed like it could potentially never lead to an in-cage culmination.
But the landscape is quite different now as Topuria is now prioritizing competing at lightweight which is the class Pimblett has been fighting at through his UFC tenure. Chael Sonnen was the analyst in question who touched upon the timeline of the Topuria and Pimblett rivalry as Sonnen said,
“When these two met, nobody knew what Ilia Topuria was. I used to call him Mr. Hand Sanitizer because I couldn’t pronounce his name. I didn’t know if Ilia was a first name, last name, or nickname. I don’t know if Topuria was a first name, last name, or nickname. And all these guys have done is gone out there and kick butt.
“Nothing trumps rivalry. You can have nationalistic, you can fight for pride of country, you can fight for world championships and undefeated records, but nothing trumps personal feud. Those fights are very hard to come by. If you’re a promoter, you dream of catching a fight like that on your watch—it’s just very hard to get to.”
“I do think it’s just one fight away. I think it should be the safest fight that they can find a way to get Paddy that victory, and then a lot’s got to happen on Ilia’s side, but they already took care of the hardest part—they got the hardest guy out of the division completely, check that box, one down. Paddy and Ilia can find each other if they both win their next fight, but oddly enough, Paddy and Ilia can find each other if they both lose their next fights.”
Ilia Topuria, Paddy Pimblett, and the path to a possible colission course
Ilia Topuria has his next assignment locked in and he could make a massive leap in his career when the cage door gets locked behind him on Saturday night. The former featherweight champion looks to claim the vacant lightweight title when he clashes with former 155 pound kingpin Charles Oliveira in the UFC 317 pay-per-view main event on June 28.
While Paddy Pimblett does not have his next fight formally booked, there are signs that he will be getting a big name opponent next that could vault him into a title challenger position following his dominant win over Michael Chandler earlier this year.
