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Paddy Pimblett already has a hilarious plan to get into Ilia Topuria’s head if they’re ever booked to fight each other.
Paddy Pimblett has had a mixed 2026 after losing to Justin Gaethje at the beginning of the year, before rebounding in impressive fashion when he choked out Benoit Saint-Denis in under a minute at UFC 329.
Since then, ‘The Baddy’ has been waiting for the lightweight title picture to unravel a little bit before calling his next shot in a fight that could potentially earn him another title fight.
And at this point, the most likely opponent for the Englishman is former champion Ilia Topuria, with the two continuing their rivalry that was sparked in 2022.
Topuria lost his lightweight title to Gaethje this past June in a shocking loss to the aforementioned Gaethje, and since then, ‘El Matador’ has been out of action licking his wounds. Despite that, the Spaniard is looking to return to the cage in the early part of 2027, and despite hoping for a rematch against ‘The Highlight’, he knows that that’s unlikely.
That has opened up the door for a potentially huge clash against Pimblett, as fans have been calling for the pair to fight for several years now. The UFC faced Topuria and Pimblett off at UFC 317 following Topuria’s title win over Charles Oliveira, but it never came to fruition.
That wasn’t the first time the pair had come face-to-face, though, as back in 2022 when they were both competing at UFC London, Pimblett and Topuria got into a brawl in the fighter hotel, and ‘The Baddy’ launched a bottle of hand sanitizer in ‘El Matador’s’ direction. With that, the 31-year-old has revealed that he still has the exact bottle of hand sanitizer that he threw at Topuria, and he plans on taking it with him to the press conference if they are ever booked to fight each other.
“I’ve still got that exact bottle of hand sanitizer that I threw at Ilia’s head, it’s in the gym. We took it with us after I threw it at him because we were staying in the hotel for the fight, I went downstairs and it was on the side so I thought, you know what, I’ll take that. I signed it and now it’s just sat in the gym,” Pimblett said on the How U Livin J Piven Podcast.
“If I do ever fight him, I’m gonna have a press conference with him and that will be coming with me,” Pimblett added.
Despite his desire for a fight against Topuria in the future, Pimblett has admitted that he would be more interested in a rematch against ‘The Highlight’, as the undisputed title means more to him than his rivalry with the Spaniard.