UFC veteran credits Ilia Topuria and Cody Garbrandt's fame to their beef with Paddy Pimblett and Conor McGregor: "Some other guy on the card"
Chael Sonnen believes that Ilia Topuria and Cody Garbrandt's first rise to fame was because they had tussles with two relatively bigger stars: Paddy Pimblett and Conor McGregor.
UFC featherweight champion Topuria and former UFC bantamweight champ Garbrandt are two of the most recognizable fighters in the UFC. While most would consider their one-shot knockout power as their tickets to mainstream relevancy, some see the early rivalries in their careers that gave them their initial fame instead.
In a recent video uploaded to Sonnen's YouTube channel, 'The Bad Guy' spoke about how Ilia Topuria's hotel scuffle with Pimblett made him famous (1:24):
"First time I hear about him [Topuria] is from my partner Ryan Parsons, who's watching something live and calling me and saying that Paddy the Baddy and some other guy on the card are throwing water bottles at one another and Paddy nicknames the guy 'Mr. Water Bottle' or it might have been hand sanitizer...By the way, Mr. Hand Sanitizer as a nickname is a lot better than Mr. Water Bottle."
Chael Sonnen then cited when Cody Garbrant lunged at Conor McGregor during an episode of The Ultimate Fighter, in which the Irishman was a coach and 'No Love' an assistant coach to Urijah Faber, saying (2:39):
"When I say what a great clip that is now, at the time that was done, we [didn't] know what a Cody Garbrandt was. I don't think Cody had even debuted in the UFC at that point. I could have that wrong. But never on the main card. 100% right."
Check out Chael Sonnen's comments here:
Ilia Topuria and Cody Garbrandt's career trajectories after incidents with Paddy Pimblett and Conor McGregor
Since his hand sanitizer incident with Paddy Pimblett made the rounds on social media in March 2022, Ilia Topuria's name became synonymous with must-see TV. Topuria then went on to win the UFC featherweight title in just three fights. 'El Matador' will look to defend his title for the first time against Max Holloway at UFC 308.
As for Garbrandt, the scene with McGregor became one of the most shared clips from the show and made people look more into who he is. 'No Love' eventually rose to the top of his division in just four fights and won the UFC bantamweight title in 2016 - about a year since the McGregor incident. In his recent fight in April this year, Garbrandt lost to Deiveson Figueiredo via unanimous decision.
It seems Chael Sonnen has valuable insight on the theories he presented. Still, we cannot count out the remarkable skills of Ilia Topuria and Cody Garbrandt that ultimately brought them to the dance.