Paddy
Pimblett plans to get on Ilia
Topuria’s nerves if they share another press conference in the
Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Pimblett (24-4) and Topuria (17-1) had a heated altercation at a
London hotel in 2022. The Brit threw a bottle of hand sanitizer at
Topuria before security intervened. Pimblett says he still has the
bottle, which he has signed and put on display at his gym.
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Paddy Pimblett says he kept the hand sanitizer bottle he threw
at Ilia Topuria during their London hotel confrontation
Pimblett wants to bring the bottle to a press conference if the two
are matched up.
“I hope [Ilia is next], I hate him,” Pimblett told Jeremy Piven.
“He got a push because of the stuff with me. He got pushed fast
through the rankings because of it. No one knew who he was. I’ve
always got that exact bottle of hand sanitizer that I threw at his
head… I’ve signed it and now it’s just sat in the gym. So, if I do
ever fight him and have a press conference with him, that will be
coming with me. And I’ll just sit it on the desk. It’ll be quite
funny.”
The rivalry began during an online spat between Pimblett and
Topuria’s friend and fellow Georgian, Guram
Kutateladze. Topuria took issue with comments “The Baddy” made
about Georgia and the Russo-Georgian war.
Pimblett lost to Justin
Gaethje in an interim lightweight title bout earlier this year
before rebounding with a 52-second submission win over Benoît
Saint Denis. Gaethje handed Topuria his first professional loss
to win the undisputed lightweight title at
UFC Freedom 250.