Paddy Pimblett is quite confident these days.
Can you blame the 155-pound fighter? Pimblett is coming off the biggest win of his career so far at UFC 314. Now Pimblett still has some ways to go as he’s currently ranked at number seven within the lightweight division.
But the 30-year-old is extremely confident that he could beat Ilia Topuria’s ass today.
“I want to fight Ilia, whenever, wherever,” Pimblett told eldoberdanMMA. “I’d love to come to Bernabéu and punch your face in. Do it in Spain in front of your fake countrymen because you’re really German. I’d love to come and punch your face in in front of 90,000 people in the Bernabéu in enemy territory for me because the Bernabéu is a shithole.”
Pimblett has already envisioned the many ways that he’ll be able to beat Topuria.
“I can see so many ways that I finish him,” Pimblett said. “Everyone thinks that on the feet it would be a one-sided fight. I can see myself knocking him out. Kicks and knees and elbows. I’m not going to do what Charles did and come out and have a boxing match with him, because I know he’s a very good boxer. I respect his hands, I respect him as a fighter, he’s very good. But once I get on top of him, he wouldn’t get back up, he wouldn’t be able to. I’d elbow him that many times that he looks like The Elephant Man.
That’s the thing, when I fight him, he’s never fought with emotion before,” Pimblett added. “He goes into every fight calm and calculated. With me, I’m already in his head. He’s not going to fight me like he fights everyone else. He’s going to try and take my head off and he’s going to get his head took off in the process.”
Now Paddy understands that he’s ranked at number seven and he just wants a fight against someone ranked above him. He thought a match-up against Just Gaethje had potential, but the former UFC Interim Lightweight Champion said he doesn't want to fight Pimblett.
“I just want to fight anyone ranked above me, really,” Pimblett said. “If it’s not Ilia, I want a No. 1 contender fight, but I obviously want Ilia. He’s got the belt. He’s who I want to fight. I want to fight for a world title. I want to be the UFC world champion, so saying I want anyone other than Ilia is just stupid. Before he won the belt, I thought I would have to have one more and I thought it would be a No. 1 contender fight with Justin, but then he said he didn’t want to fight me. So I just want to fight Ilia.”
Topuria is even down with fighting Paddy as he said during a BBC interview that he was just one fight away from challenging him. Given Topuria’s resume of fighters he’s beaten, Paddy may not be giving him the credit that he deserves as beating Topuria won’t be an easy task, but here’s hoping that a fight between the two does happen soon. Thus far, Topuria doesn’t have an opponent. That should change sometime soon.