One of the biggest names in the sport has entered the lightweight title picture following an eventful night in Miami.
Paddy Pimblett made a statement with his dominant victory over Michael Chandler in the co-main event at the Kaseya Center for UFC 314.
Despite sharing a heated exchange with Colby Covington backstage, Pimblett has already zeroed in on the list of opponents that he wants to face next time out.
Former lightweight champion Charles Oliveira is Pimblett’s preferred option but there is another potential candidate that ‘The Baddy’ didn’t name on April 12.
The controversial star could settle a long-running feud now that one of his greatest rivals, Ilia Topuria, has joined the 155-pound ranks after vacating the featherweight title.
Paddy Pimblett says he forgot about ‘irrelevant’ Ilia Topuria during his post-fight interview
Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria have developed a rivalry in recent years which dates back to a heated encounter between them in London three years ago.
With both men going undefeated inside the Octagon, a potential matchup between them at lightweight would be absolutely huge and it is now within touching distance.
Whilst Pimblett mentioned the likes of Justin Gaethje and Charles Oliveira in his post-fight interview, Topuria was surprisingly left out of the firing line.
‘The Baddy’ was asked about this in his press conference after securing the biggest win of his career to date to enter the division’s top 10 rankings.
He said that he’d be more than happy to face ‘La Leyenda’ in the near future but he simply forgot about him when targeting his next move at 155-pounds.
It is currently known who Topuria will face since moving up to the lightweight division with both Oliveira and the champion Islam Makhachev being his two main targets.
“To be honest, I forgot about him. I forgot all about him or I would have mentioned him in the cage, know what I mean. I don’t call the man ‘Sanitizer Boy’ anymore, he’s now ‘El Chorizo’ but as I say, I literally forgot all about him. That’s how irrelevant he is. I’m ranked higher than he is at lightweight so I’d love to welcome him to 155 but apparently he’s sitting out and waiting for the title shot.”
Paddy Pimblett believes he’d beat Ilia Topuria in similar fashion to his win over Michael Chandler
Though two judges gave Michael Chandler the first round on the scorecards, Paddy Pimblett became increasingly dominant the longer the fight went on.
He answered a lot of questions in what many believed would be his toughest test thus far but ‘The Baddy’ is confident that he could replicate this performance against Ilia Topuria.
Pimblett said in his post-fight press conference that he would beat the former featherweight champion in similar fashion, specifically referencing Topuria’s height after he looked in remarkable physical shape at UFC 314.
“What I’ve just done to Chandler is half the blueprint to beating him. He’s even more of a midget than Chandler is. I’ll do the exact same thing to Ilia than what I done to Chandler but as I say, anyone can get it, all the names I mentioned.”
