Paddy Pimblett could potentially find himself in a lightweight title fight against newly crowned champion Ilia Topuria next, and ‘The Baddy’ believes his size advantage could be the key to beating the former featherweight kingpin.
“I’ve said this before in several interviews, people just think he’d steamroll me, but it’s different when there’s that much size difference,” Pimblett said on the Verse Us podcast. “People think I’m not good enough to [go against him] but lad, he’s a midget.
“That’s what I said to him, I will finish you, little boy. He’s that much shorter than me, I’m so much wider than him. That plays a part. That’s why people cut weight.”
Pimblett also questioned the wisdom of Charles Oliveira going toe-to-toe with Topuria on Saturday night, and suggested that he’d got his game-plan completely wrong.
“I thought if Charles would get him to the later rounds, it might have been a bit different,” Pimblett said. “I really like Charles but what the f*ck was that game plan, lad? Just stand in front of him and get punched in the face.
“I’d love to know what their game plan was. Because that was half embarrassing. Where did the cut come from? Topuria ended up on top of him, I was like ‘Oliveira’s cut.’ Obviously that would have been in his eye a little bit. Easier to get it but still. What are you doing just standing in the middle and swinging punches with him when he’s a top class boxer and he’s got power. It blew my mind how stupid he could be after that was his 47th pro fight, and he was going in there like an amateur.”
Between the size comment and the acknowledgement of Topuria’s knockout power, it does seem as if Pimblett may well see his best chance of beating him being on the mat, and that does make sense as while his own striking has clearly improved in recent times, Pimblett’s grappling has always been his strongest suit.
That being said, it’s always worth remembering that despite his striking ability having been his calling card in the UFC so far, Topuria’s ground game is also very strong, and indeed led to him winning the first seven fights of his career in a row via submission, with all but one of those coming in the first round.
Still, even if the fight were to remain on the feet, Pimblett is convinced that he has the durability to withstand the kind of blows that Oliveira was unable to.
“That’s the thing, he’s got loads of damage,” Pimblett said of Oliveira. “I’ve never had a fight like that. I want to have a war with someone but I’ve never had one. Never took a sustained amount of damage in my life. He wouldn’t knock me out. He could hit me with his best punch and I’d laugh in his face.”
At this stage it’s all just talk as the UFC haven’t made any kind of decision about who Topuria will fight next, and indeed Dana White said after UFC 317 that he didn’t approve the in-cage square-off between Topuria and Pimblett after the fight.
That being said, a recent comment from UFC 319 headliner Dricus du Plessis that Pimblett would be fighting Justin Gaethje in the co-main event of that card next month has now been shot down by ‘The Baddy’ himself.
“Yous are mad if you think I’m fighting in August,” Pimblett wrote yesterday.
So it seems that Topuria vs. Pimblett is still a very real option, and with both fighters appearing to be eager to settle their on-going rivalry that’s only going to add fuel to the fire.
“I hate him. I absolutely hate him,” Pimblett said on Verse Us. “Like, I want to inflict pain on his life. You know what I mean? I’d like that fight to go 4 minutes and 50 seconds into the fifth round and I’ve landed 907 elbows and I’ve disfigured his face. I don’t want a quick knockout. I want to put him through pain.”
