Paddy Pimblett has accused UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria of avoiding him.
Pimblett, a top contender at 155 pounds, sees himself as the only viable option for Topuria’s first title defense and believes the Spanish-Georgian fighter has been actively trying to dodge him. That’s why he’s urging Topuria to sign the contract and make their potential clash official.
“At the minute, I’m struggling to get a fight,” Topuria told Marca. “People talk behind the scenes saying, ‘I want to fight him. I want to fight him.’ But when they get offered the fight, they don’t take it. I’m just sitting in limbo, waiting for a fight. I thought I was going to fight Justin Gaethje in Abu Dhabi in October, but he’s sitting out. Dan Hooker is fighting Arman Tsarukyan. Charles just fought Gamrot. There’s no one really for me to fight apart from Ilia Topuria.
“Hopefully that fight gets sorted. I think it would’ve been sorted by now if he would’ve signed the contract, but he’s stalling. He’s another one that talks a big game on the camera, but when it comes to signing the contract, he won’t write his name on it.”
Pimblett feels this grudge match with Topuria is long overdue. The two began beefing in 2021 with trash talk on social media, which turned into a physical altercation a year later. At the time, Topuria was fighting at 145 pounds, and Pimblett at 155 – which is why a fight between the two didn’t make much sense. However, fast-forward a few years, and the landscape is much different.
“I should’ve been his first fight at lightweight, but it never happened,” Pimblett said. “He got gifted a title shot. There’s probably other people that are more deserving than me, but gift me the title shot, and we’ll do one of the biggest fights the UFC has ever seen. We don’t like each other. We genuinely don’t like each other. We both want to hit each other, and he’s got something that I want.”
Both Topuria and Pimblett are currently not booked to fight anyone or each other. Topuria last fought in June, when he knocked out Charles Oliveira to win the vacant lightweight title. Meanwhile, Pimblett last fought in April, when he picked up a TKO win over former Bellator champion Michael Chandler.
