Paddy Pimblett: ‘Tiny’ Ilia Topuria just wants to be Conor McGregor

Paddy Pimblett isn’t impressed by Ilia Topuria’s plans to become a two-division champion. Especially since he’s seen this routine before.

UFC CEO Dana White recently announced the undefeated Topuria is vacating his featherweight title to move up to lightweight, claiming that in addition to Topuria targeting a belt in a second weight class, the fighter also no longer wants to cut down to 145 pounds.

Though Topuria is yet to comment on whether he was having any issues making featherweight, Pimblett doesn’t understand why he’s even considering a jump up to 155 pounds in the first place.

“I was thinking, ‘Wow, you’re stupid. Why have you moved up to this division?’” Pimblett told Shak MMA. “He’s tiny. He’s, like, 5-foot-5, 5-foot-6, I don’t understand. He has the audacity to call me fat when he’s saying he can’t make 145 anymore when he’s saying he can’t make 145 anymore when he’s a midget. It just doesn’t make sense.

“I think he ran from 145 to be honest because he knew [Alexander Volkanovski] not coming off a knockout loss 12 weeks earlier would give him a much tougher fight than his first fight with him. And then he also had [Movsar] Evloev and [Diego] Lopes to fight. I would have had a lot more respect for Ilia if he would have defended that belt two more times and then I think he would have been able to keep his belt and not have to vacate it and move up and fight [lightweight champion Islam Makhachev] or whoever has the belt at the time. But I don’t think he deserves a straight title shot and I don’t think the UFC do either. I think he’s going to have to fight someone in the top 3 if he wants to get a title shot.”

Pimblett and Topuria have had a longstanding rivalry, including a public scrap in March 2022 in which Pimblett threw a bottle of hand sanitizer at Topuria. They’re yet to cross paths in any official capacity in the UFC, with Topuria conquering the featherweight division and Pimblett compiling a 6-0 record at lightweight.

With Topuria set to make his lightweight debut, a future matchup with Pimblett is more realistic. Should that ever happen, Pimblett hopes Topuria is able to step up his promotional game rather than just follow in another famous fighter’s footsteps.

“I think it’s the Conor McGregor effect,” Pimblett said. “Everyone wants to be Conor McGregor. Ilia Topuria’s the worst for it. He copied his chest tattoo and his back tattoo and all that, he just wants to be Conor McGregor, but you can’t be Conor McGregor when you’ve got the charisma of a tin of beans, so it’s one of them.

“I think everyone’s just copied the McGregor route. I just say it’s a lot more when you defend your belt multiple times, like what Volk did, Volk defended his belt about five times or something like that, and then he had the chance to move up to Islam. I think [Israel] Adesanya defended his belt three times at least, same with [Daniel Cormier]. ‘DC’ defended the light heavyweight belt multiple times and then moved up to fight for the heavyweight belt, but nowadays champs are talking about going up and fighting people straight away. Belal Muhammad hasn’t even got a title defense and he’s talking about moving up, isn’t he? It’s madness.”

Pimblett is currently set to fight Michael Chandler at UFC 314 on April 12 in Miami. A win over the former Bellator star would propel Pimblett one step closer to a title shot and should he become champion, he sees big money in a matchup with McGregor in his hometown of Liverpool, England.

Should he ever step into the cage with Topuria, that would be a bonus.

“Obviously, everyone wants the Conor fight, but personally my plan is to fight a top 5 opponent, then fight for the belt,” Pimblett said. “And then I don’t care who they are as well, to be honest. Top 5 opponent, fight for the belt, and then my first title defense could be Conor McGregor at Anfield, then that is perfect, because that’s where the money is at Anfield, me and Conor.

“But obviously I do want to batter hand sanitizer boy. I want to show him how small he is and show him that he’s got little man syndrome, so he’s another one that I’d love to fight.”