Paddy Pimblett Says Beating Ilia Topuria Would Leave Him with No Fans
Paddy Pimblett questioned Ilia Topuria's fanbase loyalty and said a loss to him would finish it off.
Paddy Pimblett is going after Ilia Topuria again, this time questioning his rival's connection to three different countries and claiming a loss to Pimblett would leave Topuria without a fanbase.
Speaking on Joe Rogan's podcast, per LowKick MMA, Pimblett targeted Topuria's ties to Georgia, Spain and Germany. Topuria was born in Germany to Georgian parents and moved to Spain at age 15. Pimblett told him to pick one country and stop trying to build a following across all three.
Pimblett claimed Spanish fans had already started turning on Topuria before his loss to Justin Gaethje, and that the defeat made it worse. He said if he fights Topuria and wins, Topuria will have no fans left at all.
The Liverpudlian also argued that their feud is what put Topuria on the map in the first place. Pimblett said he was just tweeting back and did not even know who Topuria was at the time. He credited Topuria for building momentum quickly but said Topuria used Pimblett's name to get there.
The two have never fought but have been circling each other for years. They had an in-cage faceoff after Topuria beat Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 in June 2025 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Their rivalry goes back to at least March 2022, when a confrontation at a London fighter hotel involved a thrown bottle of hand sanitizer and insults from both camps.
Topuria lost the lightweight title to Justin Gaethje in June 2026 and has named Pimblett as a preferred opponent for an April return, saying he would eat him like a sausage. Topuria has also discussed a Gaethje rematch and a potential fight with Arman Tsarukyan, but nothing is confirmed.
This is Paddy being Paddy, and honestly, he is not entirely wrong.
Topuria's fanbase situation is complicated. He built a massive following across Spain and Georgia, and the German-born angle gave him even more reach. But fanbases built on winning have a shelf life, and the Gaethje loss put cracks in the foundation. Pimblett sees that and he is poking at it.
Now, would Pimblett actually beat Topuria? That is a different conversation. Topuria knocked out Volkanovski, Holloway and Oliveira before Gaethje caught up with him. He is a different level of striker. But Pimblett has size, durability and the kind of pressure that makes skilled fighters uncomfortable.
The real story here is that both guys want this fight. Topuria said the words. Pimblett is doing the promotion. If the UFC books this for April, it sells itself. Two guys who genuinely cannot stand each other, with enough history to make it personal. That is the fight to make.
