2025 has been a long year for the newly mentioned 'La Leyenda', despite the fact that he still has to compete.
Ilia Topuria is certainly not afraid of calling the top light weights such as Charles Oliveira, because the former featherweight champion wants to have an immediate impact on 155 pounds.
His move A weight class also means that he is now sharing a division with its greatest rival so far, Paddy Pimblett.
Despite their history with each other, the recent interaction at UFC London between Topuria and Pimblett was a relatively friendly exchange this time.
After he recently tackled his decision to leave the title of 145 pounds during a press conference, Topuria also gave his side to the run-in with 'The Baddy'.
Ilia Topuria says that he and Paddy Pimblett were not in a fighting mentality
Both Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett were not in London to appear or possibly cross paths with a rival.
The former featherweight King made the journey to make his colleague Georgian, Guram Kutateladze, who fell in the first fight of the night.
In the second game on the map, Pimblett's teammate Nathan Fletcher was in action where he ran a close defeat against Caolan Loughran while later in the night, the next generation MMA's Molly McCann announced her retirement after a loss against Alexia Thainara.
'The Baddy' has already told its version of events after Pimblett and Topuria smile at each other and exchanged a fist bump when the Brit left the stage at the ceremonial weightings the day before fighting evening.
He stated that despite their earlier encounters that were much more heated, that does not mean that they cannot share a joke with each other in a situation like this.
Topuria largely repeated the same sentiment during a press conference while on March 29 he was present at WOW 17 in Madrid.
'La Leyenda' said that this meeting took place between them as two athletes who were there for a different reason than competing, so there was not much tension or bad blood on this occasion.
“We just were not in our fighting roles. I was going to support a friend of mine, he started supporting another friend of him, then we met and greeted each other. At the end of the day we are athletes. But if we enter the field of fighting and we have to fight, the story changes.”
Ilia Topuria about his interaction with Paddy Pimblett last week:
“We just weren't in our fighting roles. I was going to support a friend of mine, he started supporting another friend of his when we met and we greeted each other.
At the end of the day we are athletes. But when we enter the … pic.twitter.com/cmbzhjt4ph
– Championship Rounds (@champrds) March 31, 2025
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Ilia Topuria is exactly what the UFC needs now
In recent months there has been a debate about the lack of star quality in the UFC at the moment, especially after the loss of Alex Pereira on UFC 313.
Ilia Topuria is one of the greatest arguments against this and although he may not be an understanding in the United States, look at the way in which the Spanish crowd reacted when he made his entrance at WOW 17.
The other active that Topuria brings to the table that the UFC needs is that he is not afraid to call opponents and make drama.
If the 28-year-old is able to make the ground run at lightweight, his star status will only continue to grow all over the world into something very special.
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