“The UFC’s protecting him,” Ilia Topuria reveals why a fight between him and Paddy Pimblett has not been booked yet after the events of UFC 282
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Ilia Topuria calls out Paddy Pimblett at UFC London
UFC fighters Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett have been verbally tussling with each other for a long time now. And despite them having fought on the same card on two separate occasions, the pair have not fought one another.
Now, after UFC 282, it seems Ilia Topuria knows the reason behind this illogical matchmaking. Speaking about this fight, he said to Ariel Helwani, “I feel like the UFC’s protecting him [from] me. I don’t know why. In reality, that’s the fight to make right now, because it’s one of the biggest fights in the UFC.”
Topuria added, “We can perfectly sell a pay-per-view. That fight makes more excitement for people than [many] championship fights.” The two fighters even butted heads at the UFC 282 post-fight press conference, exchanging enough shots to make a full-fledged pre-fight promo.
Pimblett and Topuria both came away from this past Saturday’s pay-per-view with victories to their names, in addition to putting on quite the show during the post-fight presser. A huge percentage of MMA fans would, however, disagree, claiming Pimblett was defeated in the co-main event by Jared Gordon.
Ilia Topuria has said that he too believes in this notion of Pimblett losing the fight. However, most including Ilia, also feel that this fight would not end well for Paddy The Baddy in spite of his size advantage over Topuria, especially after his clinical performance against Bryce Mitchell.
Ilia Topuria wants Brian Ortega in his next fight at featherweight
In a perfect world, both Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria’s next fight would be against each other. However, things don’t always work out that way in the fighting business.
Many fights that look like absolute bangers on paper never end up materializing. And this is why Ilia Topuria is not too invested in securing a match against Paddy the Baddy.
On the same episode of the MMA Hour, Ilia revealed who he wanted as his next fight at featherweight. “In reality I would love to focus on my weight class. I would love to face Brian Ortega. He never turned down the fight, so now I want my fight…I know he has an injury right now, in his shoulder. So we’re gonna ask him how much time he needs to get healthy. I think he’s a warrior and he’s gonna accept the fight.”
“T-City” has been dealing with a shoulder injury that caused him to stay out of active competition. However, Ortega really is a warrior and has fought and put on some classic fights against some of the best UFC fighters, Alexander Volkanovski being one of the best examples of such a fight. And a fight against Ilia Topuria will for sure go the same way as the two are absolute beasts within the octagon.
Also Read: Why is BJ Penn considered a lightweight legend despite the many losses on his record?
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Neeraj Bharadwaj
(58 Articles Published)