Paddy Pimblett is starting to get frustrated within the wait for his lightweight title opportunity being confirmed.
It seems that there’s some jostling between Pimblett and Justin Gaethje over who can be Ilia Topuria’s first title defence at 155lb. The Georgian is more likely to defend his title on the primary UFC numbered event of next yr, which coincides with the start of a monster $7.7billion broadcast cope with Paramount.
Pimblett and Topuria got here head-to-head in Las Vegas following the newly-crowned champion’s win over Charles Oliveira back in June. But Dana White was not blissful with the face-off, and insisted it wasn’t ‘the fight’ even despite their years-long rivalry and the Brit’s ascent to the highest five.
- Who’s Paddy Pimblett? Get to know the ‘baddy’ of MMA who’s making his presence felt in UFC
Paddy Pimblett irked by delay to Ilia Topuria announcement
Speaking with JNMedia, Paddy Pimblett laid bare his frustrations with the shortage of confirmation of his next fight. After obliterating Michael Chandler back in April at UFC 314, he has been ascending the rankings attributable to other results understanding in his favor, and he’s now a legitimate top five contender.
“Me and Topuria’s got the storyline in-built it’s all there,” Pimblett explained. “It’s half nice for me that he’s got the belt though I don’t like him and I slightly he not be a two-division champ, it’s higher for me that he won it because if Charles had won I’d have definitely needed to fight another person first.
“But with Ilia having the belt it’s only a storyline that’s already arrange and able to go. I don’t know why it’s not already announced and made and written in a contract. We’ll see what happens in the subsequent few weeks.”
Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria’s feud goes back years
The rivalry between Pimblett and Topuria dates back years, and first became physical at a UFC London event in 2022. Nonetheless, it actually began before that when Guram Kutateladze was calling for a fight with the Brit and received some abuse back that included criticism of Georgia.
Topuria identifies as each Georgian and Spanish attributable to being born in Georgia before moving to Spain in his youth and spending most of his youth there.
After an exchange on X, Pimblett ended up going too far when he wrote: “Lad how silly are these Georgians, man. No wonder the Russians terrorize their lives.”
It led to the pair having a physical altercation at a hotel where Pimblett threw a bottle of hand sanitizer at his rival. They’ve since had various run-ins at press conferences and media events, most notably facing off after UFC 317.