Ilia Topuria was furious with Paddy Pimblett in a London hotel this week. Their scuffle, which Topuria posted on Instagram, quickly fizzled out, but Topuria remains incensed with the UFC newcomer.
Topuria, on The MMA Hour, revealed that he’s been angry at Paddy Pimblett for years, blaming a joke Paddy “The Baddy” made about the Russian invasion of Georgia some years prior.
Ilia Topuria on Paddy The Baddy: “I need just one punch and I can put my balls on his forehead”
“It didn’t happen because he called me something yesterday. It comes from a long time ago. He was arguing with one of my close friends once on Twitter and he posted like, ‘Now I understand why Russia destroyed Georgia, because you’re dumb,’ and it makes my blood boil.
When I saw it, I was surprised. I didn’t believe it when I saw that tweet, because in 2008 I was living in Georgia when the war happened, and it was a very difficult time for me, for my family, for all my friends, for my country. A lot of innocent people, kids, were dying in that war.
And to see how someone is joking about that, it makes my blood boil. So I texted with him, I don’t remember what I tweeted, and when they gave me the fight in London, he text me like three weeks ago, like, ‘I can’t wait to see you in London. We’ll see if you have the balls to tell me everything you texted me on Twitter.’ Bulls***.”
Ilia also reacted to Pimblett’s press conference interview, in which Paddy called him a “nobody”. “I saw this interview today that he was saying, like, ‘He is nobody. He’s small.’ Something like this.
Who the f*** is he? Who the f*** is he? This guy has just one fight in the UFC. Yes, maybe I’m not so tall, but I need just one punch and I can put my balls on his forehead.
So, if he gets the win, I really want to fight with him. Even if he doesn’t get the win, I want to fight him, because of my people, because of me. I want to take his head off.
If they give me the chance to be with him alone in a room, I’m going to kill this motherf*****. Right now, he’s walking with security. He needs security in his own country.
He was quiet like a b****. He didn’t say anything. So, yeah, f*** him. F*** him. He’s just a man on Twitter, but this is not Twitter.
This is real life. If you want to play a gangster, be a gangster until the end. If not, just stay quiet, kid.” Did Paddy Pimblett go too far? Let us know in the comments.
