Paddy Pimblett claims Ilia Topuria is “stalling” over a potential title fight

UFC star Paddy Pimblett believes that Ilia Topuria is stalling over a potential lightweight title showdown between them.

For the longest time, Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria have been embroiled in a rivalry. The two have disliked each other for as long as we can remember, and they even got into a physical altercation prior to them fighting on the same UFC London card a few years back.

RELATED: Paddy Pimblett would ‘love’ to fight Ilia Topuria in enemy territory: ‘Do it in Spain in front of your fake countrymen’

Nowadays, though, Topuria is the UFC lightweight champion, having formerly held the gold at 145 pounds too. Pimblett is on the rise, and many believe that he should get the next shot at ‘El Matador’ if it doesn’t go to Justin Gaethje.

In a recent interview, Pimblett had some interesting views when it came to the state of the lightweight division and his own future.

Pimblett calls out Topuria

“Yes, seven wins and I’m in seventh place, but when I beat Michael Chandler, he was in seventh place. So it’s only fair that you move up to the spot of the person you just beat. So yeah, I think seventh place is pretty fair, but right now I’m struggling to get a fight. People talk a lot behind the scenes saying: ‘I want to fight him, I want to fight him’, and then when it comes time for the fight, they don’t accept it.

“So I’m sitting in limbo waiting for the fight. I thought I was going to fight Gaethje in Abu Dhabi in October, but he’s not going to be involved and Dan Hooker is going to fight Arman Tsarukyan and Charles [Oliveira] just fought Gamrot. There’s no one else I can fight, apart from Ilia Topuria, so hopefully that fight will be sorted out.

“I think it would have been sorted out by now if he had signed the contract, but he’s stalling. He’s another one. He talks a lot behind the scenes, but when it comes to signing the contract, he doesn’t put his name on it.”

Quotes via Marca