Paddy Pimblett would happily fight Ilia Topuria after his White House defeat to Justin Gaethje, despite emphatically calling out the new undisputed champion for a rematch – but predicts fate to intervene.
Pimblett basked in the failure of bitter rival Topuria after he succumbed to his first ever defeat in the main event of UFC Freedom 250, losing his lightweight title via fourth-round corner stoppage after being pummelled by heavy underdog Gaethje.
The Liverpudlian, who lost to Gaethje by unanimous decision for the interim title in January, blasted Topuria for “quitting on the stool” and made his preference for his next bout clear, demanding a second shot at the American who fulfilled a career-long pursuit of undisputed gold in Washington DC.
But that does not mean Pimblett, booked to face Benoit Saint-Denis on 11 July, would now turn his nose up at a match with Topuria.
Asked how he would react if bookers approached him with the opportunity to finally throw down with his long-term foe, in turn snubbing him for a title shot, Pimblett told The Independent: “Sound, let’s go.”
However, with the former two-division champion potentially needing surgery after Dana White suspected that he suffered a broken orbital bone, Pimblett does not expect that opportunity will come before the end of the year, by which he wants to have another fight in the books.
“ I want to fight again before the end of the year, and I doubt if he’s going to be ready to,” he added. “He’s not fighting until next year at least I don’t think.
“He needs to apparently get a lot of surgeries and all the stuff like that. If he needs surgeries on his face, he’s not fighting until next year.
“I’m hoping to get BSD out of there within two rounds and then fight again before the end of the year.”
While the pair have often been unrelenting with their trash talk ever since their feud broke out following an altercation in London in 2022, Pimblett did express his sympathy for Topuria amid a highly-publicised divorce which has kept him out of the cage for a year.
It’s therefore possible that beyond rehabbing injuries, Topuria may opt to have a proper break as he looks to put personal troubles and his first real UFC setback behind him.
“He’s got a lot of s*** going on outside the cage,” Pimblett recognised, but the 31-year-old does not believe that was the reason for Topuria’s defeat to Gaethje.
“Everyone said because of that, he’s just going to knock Justin out, you know what I mean? So it works both ways.”
Pimblett added that he did feel a sense of vindication to see Gaethje dismantle the unbeatable aura of Topuria, having himself received stick for failing to overcome the American at UFC 324, a match in which he was also considered the favourite to win.
”It was a bit of vindication, but at the same time I knew how good he was,” he said. “I predicted him [Gaethje] to win this week. Everyone laughed at me, didn’t think that it could happen, but it’s the fight game. Anything can happen.”
He later added: “[I went] five rounds with who is now the undisputed world champion and I made the fight competitive all the way through it. One judge thought I won two rounds of the five, and I think I only lost the second round because he poked me in the eye and punched me straight after it.”
“I didn’t quit on the stool like a little b****. That’s what I didn’t do.”
