Ilia Topuria took care of business at UFC 317. For his next fight, he expects to mix in a little pleasure.
Following his momentous first-round knockout of Charles Oliveira in Saturday’s main event—a win that earned Topuria a vacant lightweight title—he called for rival Paddy Pimblett to enter the cage for a faceoff. Pimblett was seated cageside at T-Mobile Arena and happily obliged, exchanging words up close with Topuria before “El Matador” shoved Pimblett away.
At the evening’s post-fight press conference, Topuria was asked why the Englishman makes sense as his first title challenger.
“That’s the fight that I want because with Charles, I had a little bit of a difficult situation because I really like the guy,” Topuria said. “He’s a really great human being. You can’t hate him. You always see him surrounded by his family, friends, teammates. He’s an amazing human being. But at the end, I was like this is competition, I have to do my job, and that’s it.
“But with Paddy? I’m really going to enjoy kicking his ass.”
The feud between Topuria and Pimblett dates back years, originating in 2021 when Topuria took offense to online comments Pimblett made about a past conflict between Topuria’s native Georgia and Russia. That beef boiled over in March 2022, when the fighters had an altercation at a hotel prior to a UFC event in London. Since then, the two have continued to occasionally take public shots at each other, though a fight seemed unlikely given that they were competing in different weight classes.
However, with Topuria departing featherweight to claim the lightweight crown, and Pimblett putting together a lengthy unbeaten run in the 155-pound division, it now makes perfect sense for the rivals to settle their score in the cage.
And next time, it will be done with the blessing of UFC CEO Dana White, who told reporters he wasn’t happy with the impromptu faceoff due to safety concerns.
“Someone from my team told me that Dana was a little bit angry about that,” Topuria said. “But he wasn’t there, so maybe that has to happen.”
Topuria hopes to be ready to fight again by the end of the year and all signs point to Pimblett being eager to accommodate. Should that fight happen in the United States, Topuria expects fans to warm up to him after bouts with fan favorites Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway in which Topuria received his fair share of boos.
“A hundred percent,” Topuria said if he thinks American fans will cheer him on in the future. “Maybe with Paddy.”
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