Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria had a heated exchange during the UFC 282 pre-fight press conference on Thursday night.
The beef between the two fighters started in the lead-up to UFC London back in March over Pimblett’s comments on Topuria’s home country of Georgia.
The two have since been trading barbs at regular intervals, culminating in their recent altercation which required intervention from security.
Pimblett took a dig at Topuria’s heavy Spanish accent, urging him to speak English for the fans. ‘The Baddy’ said:
“Are you talking English? Is that English? Speak English for the people, lad. Not German or Spanish like where you are from. Mongrel.”
‘El Matador’ responded with cuss words in English as well as Spanish:
“I am talking in English and f*** you in English. Que to j**dan in Español.”
The altercation at the presser started with Topuria accusing Pimblett of avoiding and hiding from him. ‘The Baddy’ expectedly responded by referring to the bottle of hand sanitizer that he had thrown at Topuria back in March.
The situation eventually escalated to a point where Topuria stepped up and started walking towards Pimblett, saying:
“Shut up, or I’m going to stand up and crush your face right now.”
Pimblett responded as security stepped in:
“Do it, then you little p***** – do something. What’ll you do? You’ll do nothing. Go and sit back down. Sit back down you little p****.”
Ilia Topuria claims Paddy Pimblett is “scared” of him
While Ilia Topuria is consistently jibing at Paddy Pimblett, ‘The Baddy’ is seemingly downplaying their initial beef while dismissing ‘El Matador’ as irrelevant. Topuria recently claimed that he was made to wait outside the PI while Pimblett was escorted out of the back door to avoid a potential altercation.
Topuria reiterated his claims during the UFC 282 presser, also stating that ‘The Baddy’ is scared to face him inside the octagon. The 25-year-old undefeated prospect said:
“I don’t think he has the balls to face me and close himself in the octagon with me. So f*** him. You see, he didn’t give me a response. Why? Because he’s scared of me.”
While Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria have seemingly set themselves up for a future clash, the UFC might be hesitant to pit their new cash cow up against the undefeated prospect.
Topuria will take on fellow undefeated featherweight Bryce Mitchell this weekend, while ‘The Baddy’ will lock horns with Jared Gordon in the co-headliner.
Catch Ilia Topuria’s comments on Paddy Pimblett below (37:10):