Paddy Pimblett might have a Christmas dinner dilemma to contemplate: Pile on the turkey and trimmings and face Colby Covington or stick to the sprouts and parsnips and pick Ilia Topuria.
‘The Baddy’ is 6-0 in the UFC and earned a No.13 ranking in the lightweight division with his victory over Bobby Green in Manchester in July.
Having made waves at 155lbs, Pimblett also has simmering feuds with featherweight champion Topuria (145lbs) and welterweight motormouth Covington (170lbs).
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While we could be waiting a while for these cross-weight clashes, the Liverpool fighter has both men on his menu as he looks to dish out some just desserts.
Responding to dismissive comments from ‘Chaos’ Covington, who is set to face Joaquin Buckley later this month in Miami, and his Donald Trump -inspired schtick, Pimblett, who was talking with aceodds.com, said: “I’ll f****** punch Colby Covington’s head in. I will.
(Image: Zuffa LLC)
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“I’m game to fight him. I’ll fight him at welterweight, lad, and I’ll f****** batter him. He just sucks Donald Trump’s arse. But I think he’s just doing that for publicity because he knows Trump’s going to be the president again.
“He’s just clinging onto Trump, being a cling on, when Trump doesn’t really care about him.”
Pimblett’s longest rivalry, however, is with Topuria, with their beef having been stewing since March 2022.
The two clashed in the fighters’ hotel ahead of UFC London, when the Spanish star and his team bumped into ‘The Baddy’, the former throwing an attempted punch and the latter launching a sanitiser bottle in the opposite direction, amid a shouting match.
‘El Matador’ went on to knockout Alexander Volkanovski for the featherweight crown earlier this year before defending it in the same manner against Max Holloway in October.
Giving credit where it is due, Pimblett added: “I didn’t think that he would beat Volkanovski and Holloway. I thought that Volk was winning the fight until he caught him.
“But yeah, he proved me very wrong with Max Holloway. I thought Max was going to beat him up for five rounds. I didn’t think he would do that, so hats off to him.”
Sizing up a potential match-up with the undefeated Topuria, Pimblett said: “Obviously, as you know, he’s very short, lad. He’s small. I think I would just be able to keep him at range, keep him at bay.
“He wouldn’t be able to land any of these big, stupid hooks that he throws because I would keep him at range with my kicks. But when the time comes, he would get submitted on the ground, after I take him down.”
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