On the heels of an action-packed night of fights in Vegas, which saw Paddy Pimblett come face-to-face with newly minted champion Ilia Topuria, Dricus Du Plessis seemingly leaked a fight between The Baddy and Justin Gaethje for the co-main event of UFC 219.
According to the streaking Scouser, however, there’s no chance he fights in August. On Tuesday, Pimblett took to social media, writing:
“Yous are mad if you think I’m fighting in August.”
Paddy Pimblett notably cuts a significant amount of weight to get down to the lightweight non-title-fight limit of 156 pounds. Given that the UFC 319 card is just over six weeks away, the No. 8 ranked contender likely needs more time to prepare.
Of course, at the same time, there’s been no indication that Justin Gaethje is interested in fighting for a crack at the title.
When we last heard from Gaethje, The Highlight downplayed previous comments made by his manager, Ali Abdelaziz, who indicated that the former WSOF champ would retire if his next fight wasn’t for a belt. Instead, Gaethje explained that he will fight again, but it has to be against a champion.
Paddy Pimblett Compares Potential Fight With Topuria To McGregor-Nurmagomedov
After a heated staredown with Ilia Topuria turned physical on Saturday night, Paddy Pimblett thinks a potential fight between the two sells itself.
While speaking on Xtreme Couture coach Eric Nicksick’s Verse Us podcast on Monday, The Baddy explained that the bad blood between the two is reminiscent of the Conor McGregor–Khabib Nurmagomedov fight.
Although we’ve seen plenty of instances where two fighters play up their rivalry to sell a fight, The Baddy made it clear that there’s no love lost between the two:
“It’s the only fight to make. We haven’t seen two people genuinely dislike each other since Conor and Khabib. … I hate him. I absolutely hate him. I want to inflict pain on his life. I’d like that fight to go four minutes, fifty seconds into the fifth round, and I’ve landed 907 elbows and I’ve disfigured his face.
“I don’t want a quick knockout, I want to put him through pain.”
Paddy Pimblett has strong feelings about Ilia Topuria…
📽️ Verse Us with Eric Nicksick
Looking Back at the Origins of Paddy Pimblett’s Feud With Ilia Topuria
Way back in 2021, Paddy Pimblett was involved in an online back-and-forth with Guram Kutateladze.
At the time, The Georgian Viking was fresh off a split decision win over Mateusz Gamrot in his UFC debut. Looking to secure a fight with The Baddy, he called out Pimblett, prompting the former Cage Warriors champ to fire back.
In a post on social media, Pimblett dismissed the callout, writing that he would likely be called out by several more fighters before the day was up, however, he ended it by calling Georgian fighters “dumb”.
That landed him in the crosshairs of Ilia Topuria, who fired back, sparking a back-and-forth that saw Pimblett reference Georgia’s well-documented history with Russia.
That comment seemingly crossed the line, escalating things.
Pimblett wound up deleting the post, explaining that he didn’t know the full context of Georgia’s history with Russia.
Despite that, he and Topuria were involved in a heated altercation the following year, which was captured by The Mac Life.
Although at the time they fought in different weight classes, with Topuria now sitting atop the lightweight division, perhaps the two will have a chance to settle things in the Octagon.
Paddy Pimblett Refutes Claims of Justin Gaethje Fight in August