“Almost Guarantee It…” With Signature GOAT Fighter Retired, UFC Legend Bills Ilia Topuria vs. Paddy Pimblett To Headline MSG

One of the biggest cards now could be graced by PPV lightweight title battle between Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett for UFC's NY, MSG schedule!

“Almost Guarantee It…” With Signature GOAT Fighter Retired, UFC Legend Bills Ilia Topuria vs. Paddy Pimblett To Headline MSG

Ilia Topuria vs Paddy Pimblett could very well headline Madison Square Garden (Source: X)

Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett may face off in one of the biggest PPV fight setups of the year. The rivalry was already set years ago. With Ilia Topuria proving he is just as dangerous at 155 pounds, in Saturday’s PPV main event at the T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV, the fight is edging nearer.

Topuria mounted a shock-and-awe first-round knockout (punches) of Charles Oliveira – at about the 2:27 mark – to win the vacant crown, and later faced off with the Englishman. Paddy Pimblett all but knew he’d be the frontrunner of it due to him being the ‘arch-enemy’ and the #8 155-pounder has already laid out his title siege plans.

All that’s needed is a stage set; Michael Bisping lauded in full force, pleased with what he saw from Ilia Topuria at the PPV top spot this weekend. The Englishman piled some hefty praises on the Spanish-Georgian, even billing him as “the new GOAT.” Hence, Bisping has proposed a glorified fighting ground for a glorified battle of these proportions:

Can Paddy take those kind of shots? I don’t know. Can Paddy take him down? I don’t know. Can Paddy submit him on the ground? I don’t know about that either…But guess what? All of those questions will be answered when they fight at Madison Square Garden. You can bet your bottom dollar on it…I almost guarantee it because who knows what the UFC has planned?…They’ve got some surprise up their sleeve. But I can 99.999% say Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett, they will be fighting at Madison Square Garden.

Michael Bisping on his ‘Bisping’ Podcast for his Official YT Channel | UFC 317 AFTERMATH (🎥/ @bisping)

Speaking of GOAT fighters, ex-UFC heavyweight Jon Jones is out of the picture; Alex Pereira is hinting at a PPV title rematch and entering fight camp, but nobody knows for what/where. Islam Makhachev is projected for an October PPV top spot in Saudi Arabia; Jack Della Maddalena is to be his opponent.

Champ Dricus Du Plessis is booked too. Other than the Albuquerque fighter, N.M., fighter and ‘Poatan,’ now holding camp out of Danbury, Connecticut, U.S., not many fighters are big draws for the coveted MSG fighting grounds. Paddy Pimblett vs. Topuria might just be the big hit that MSG grounds need as a PPV main event! With the power punchers’ array and list of wins growing, he is making for that #1 Pound-for-pound spot.

Meanwhile, ‘Baddy,’ while a PPV top draw for UK crowds, is getting globally popular as well. Pimblett, now a #top-10 lightweight, is fresh off a SOTY-worth finish of King Green, followed by a third-round TKO of Michael Chandler in April. He, too, is proving to be quite the all-around challenge, and despite there being other names, the rivalry just makes all the sense.

Paddy Pimblett ignited heated beef with Ilia Topuria, leaving him visibly enraged after controversial remark

Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett’s needless heated in-cage confrontation at UFC 317 PPV, which sparked a years-long rivalry between them, was an animosity years in making.

Ilia Topuria was incensed by Paddy Pimblett's commentary on war on Georgia
Ilia Topuria was incensed by Paddy Pimblett’s commentary on war on Georgia (Source: X)

Their beef has been well-known for a long time, and it gained mainstream attention after the duo almost started a fight in London at the UFC Host hotel. Through the years, the duo also kept bantering about their skills ceiling and personal takes, more than ever. That, however, was not the catalyst that ignited the fuse.

The friction between ‘El Matador’ and bad ‘Baddy’ stemmed from controversial remarks about Georgia, the country where Ilia Topuria is from. It came to be during a dialogue and some subsequent bantering with Guram Kutateladze.

It didn’t happen because he called me something yesterday [At the host hotel]…It comes from a long time ago, …He was arguing with one of my close friends once on Twitter and he posted [maybe, something] like, ‘Now I understand why Russia destroyed Georgia.’ … It makes my blood boil. When I saw it, I was surprised, …I didn’t believe it when I saw that tweet, because in 2008 I was living in Georgia when the war happened, and it was a very difficult time for me, for my family, for all my friends, for my country. A lot of innocent people, kids, were dying in that war.

Ilia Topuria during a previous sitdown on “The MMA Hour w/Ariel Helwani” for MMAFighting on SBN

Push comes to shove (it did), the fight clique almost always knew if he could put up with it, Pimblett would emerge as a contender to fight Ilia Topuria someday.

In his initial response to Pimblett’s controversial social media post, Topuria warned that his take would “haunt” him for life. The lightweight kingpin may have the opportunity to ensure that outcome by exacting retribution from the ascendant 155-pound contender soon.

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