Paddy Pimblett plans to taunt Ilia Topuria with bottle from 2022 clash

Paddy Pimblett plans to get on Ilia Topuria’s nerves if they share another press conference in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Pimblett (24-4) and Topuria (17-1) had a heated altercation at a London hotel in 2022. The Brit threw a bottle of hand sanitizer at Topuria before security intervened. Pimblett says he still has the bottle, which he has signed and put on display at his gym.Paddy Pimblett says he kept the hand sanitizer bottle he threw at Ilia Topuria during their London hotel confrontation Pimblett wants to bring the bottle to a press conference if the two are matched up. “I hope [Ilia is next], I hate him,” Pimblett told Jeremy Piven. “He got a push because of the stuff with me. He got pushed fast through the rankings because of it. No one knew who he was. I’ve always got that exact bottle of hand sanitizer that I threw at his head… I’ve signed it and now it’s just sat in the gym. So, if I do ever fight him and have a press conference with him, that will be coming with me. And I’ll just sit it on the desk. It’ll be quite funny.” The rivalry began during an online spat between Pimblett and Topuria’s friend and fellow Georgian, Guram Kutateladze. Topuria took issue with comments “The Baddy” made about Georgia and the Russo-Georgian war. Pimblett lost to Justin Gaethje in an interim lightweight title bout earlier this year before rebounding with a 52-second submission win over Benoît Saint Denis. Gaethje handed Topuria his first professional loss to win the undisputed lightweight title at UFC Freedom 250.