MIAMI – Paddy Pimblett made a statement with his performance Saturday at UFC 314. He then made a callout, or a series of them, on the microphone.
Four names came to mind: Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, Charles Oliveira, and Arman Tsarukyan. One name was notedly missing, however.
Ilia Topuria was not mentioned. But why?
“To be honest, I forgot about him,” Pimblett laughed, during a post-fight news conference. “I forgot all about him or I would’ve mentioned him in the cage, you know what I mean? I don’t call him ‘Hand Sanitizer Boy’ any more. … But like I said, 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.
Pimblett (23-3 MMA, 7-0 UFC) and Topuria (16-0 MMA, 8-0 UFC) have history stemming back to a March 2022 hotel altercation and online trash talk that led up to it.
Pimblett finished Michael Chandler at Kaseya Center on Saturday, the consensus biggest win over his career. According to Pimblett, there are a lot of similarities between what he did to Chandler (23-10 MMA, 2-5 UFC) and what he’d do to Topuria.
“Apparently, he’s sitting out and waiting for the title shot,” Pimblett said. What I just did to Chandler is half the blue print of beating him. He’s even more of a midget than Chandler is. I’ll do the exact same thing of what I did to Chandler. But as I said, anyone can get it, all the names I mentioned. And even McGregor, putting money on Chandler to win, lad? Like, the Irish-Scouse connection, lad. He’s meant to back me but he never (does).”
One way or another, Pimblett is gunning for title gold. He hopes for one more contender fight and then a championship bout. 2026 is his target year to be crowned.
“I want to be a world champion,” Pimblett said. “I’ve always said that I’m going to be a world champion and beating a former champion like Charles Oliveira, who had two title defenses, he gets called the best submission artist the division has ever seen. So I’d like to go up against that because I think I’ve got better submissions than Charles Oliveira. … I f*cking hope so. 2026, I want that belt wrapped around my waist.”
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