Ilia Topuria's coach gives brutally honest preview of potential Paddy Pimblett fight: "What would that be, abuse?"
Ilia Topuria's trainer recently previewed a possible showdown between his student and England's Paddy Pimblett. He notably questioned whether Pimblett even deserves the fight at this point.
Back in 2022, Pimblett garnered considerable attention, feuding against fighters of Georgian descent, such as Guram Kutateladze, Topuria, and more. Pimblett, known for his relentless trash talk, seemingly brought up the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia. In one of his tweets, 'The Baddy' jibed:
"Lad how stupid are these Georgians man ... no wonder the Russians terrorise their lives"
After severe backlash from the combat sports community and beyond, Pimblett apologized and suggested that he wasn't aware of the war's history. Regardless, Topuria and many others indicated that his remarks showed he knew about the war and still referenced it.
Their bitter rivalry was seemingly reignited after Topuria's latest fight, in which he knocked out the legendary Max Holloway last month. The reigning UFC featherweight champion, Topuria is eyeing more title defenses and a potential lightweight title shot as well. Pimblett posted a video to his YouTube channel congratulating Topuria but warning that he'd still beat him if they fought.
In a Spanish-language interview with Danny Segura on Hablemos MMA, Ilia Topuria's coach, Jorge Climent, recently recounted that Topuria was angry at Pimblett back then. Topuria felt the British fighter purportedly disrespected his family members who'd partaken in the Russo-Georgian war.
Recalling that Topuria genuinely wanted to fight and hurt Pimblett, he asserted that 'The Baddy' didn't want the fight. He also alluded to the Liverpudlian being one of the UFC's most popular fighters and implied the organization probably wanted to protect Pimblett by keeping him away from Topuria.
Moreover, Climent questioned whether Pimblett is capable of fighting a championship-caliber fighter like Topuria right now:
"Who has he beat? All his fights, they put someone alright in front of him, just so he can exist and stay relevant. He's very media because of how he talks and all that, but I don't see him having the quality to fight Ilia, and I don't think he deserves it." [H/T MMA Junkie for translation and quotes]
Additionally, asserting how a potential matchup would play out, Climent insinuated that Pimblett would suffer a one-sided defeat to 'El Matador'. The coach said:
"What would that be, abuse?"
Watch the interview below:
Ilia Topuria retorted at Paddy Pimblett's incessant 'Hand Sanitizer Boy' jibes during UFC press conference
During the build-up to UFC Fight Night 204 (March 2022), Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett crossed paths and exchanged words at a London hotel. Pimblett infamously threw a bottle of hand sanitizer at the Georgian-Spaniard. The Liverpudlian, who's aiming to return soon, has since repeatedly referred to Topuria as 'Mr. Hand Sanitizer' or 'Hand Sanitizer Boy.'
Watch the incident below:
Another card that the two competed on was UFC 282 (Dec. 2022). During the pre-fight press conference, they traded barbs and almost got into another altercation. While Pimblett continued mocking him with the aforementioned epithets, Topuria fired back by accusing the Englishman of being scared to fight him:
"I don't think he gets the balls to face me and close himself in the octagon with me, so f**k him."
Check out Ilia Topuria's comments below (3:00):