Ilia Topuria admits he expected to fight Paddy Pimblett on the White House: ‘I’m surprised’

Ilia Topuria shouldn’t be shocked to search out himself headlining the largest MMA card of 2026.

The lightweight champion will face interim titleholder Justin Gaethje on the UFC White House event.

Nevertheless, Ilia Topuria was expecting to unify the division by beating another person on June 14.

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Ilia Topuria thought Paddy Pimblett would beat Justin Gaethje

Justin Gaethje picked up a unanimous decision win over Paddy Pimblett at UFC 324 in January.

Ilia Topuria predicted pre-fight that ‘The Baddy’ can be an excessive amount of for Gaethje on the bottom.

On the night, Pimblett made the ill-advised decision to face and bang with ‘The Highlight’.

“I’m surprised because I assumed that Paddy was gonna win that fight against Justin,” Topuria admitted during a recent interview.

“I used to be pondering [to] myself before that fight that I might face Paddy, because because the first moment that they announced the White House, I at all times knew that I can be in that event.

“So, I used to be like, ‘If Justin is gonna fight Paddy, I’m gonna fight the winner, and I believe that Paddy is gonna win that fight.

“I’m surprised due to that.”

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Ilia Topuria was near fighting Islam Makhachev as a substitute

When Paddy Pimblett didn’t get the job done, Ilia Topuria turned his attention to Islam Makhachev.

A fight with the UFC welterweight champion reportedly fell apart 24 hours before the White House card was announced.

Makhachev recently claimed that Topuria priced himself out of their potential UFC super fight.

Dana White insisted that’s ‘not true’ didn’t occur before Topuria’s manager went to bat for his star client.

It won’t be on the White House, but Makhachev vs. Topuria will almost actually happen within the near future.