Things had the potential to become very messy on Friday afternoon on stage at the UFC London Ceremonial Weg-ins.
In anticipation of his UFC 314 collision against Michael Chandler, Paddy Pimblett will be in the corner of his teammate, Nathan Fletcher, on Saturday against Caolan Loughran in UFC London.
Also during the event, the former UFC champion featherweight, Ilia Topuria, which is planned to put his countryman, Guram Kutateladze, into work.
With Topuria and Pimblett who are part of a stars-lined guest list in the O2-Arena, there was a high potential that the old rivals would collide during the fight week at a certain moment.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria embrace on stage on UFC London
Fortunately for the promotion, 'The Baddy' and 'El Matador' were kept away from each other during the fighting week.
Pimblett and Topuria have a mutual hatred for each other, which come back on when they participated in a UFC London event next to each other in 2022.
The two finally bumps in the UFC Fighter Hotel, where the Brit threw a bottle of hand desfector to the Georgian and caused the start of their rivalry.
Since then, the two UFC stars have suggested that they may fight each other, but they have kept them apart so far.
Topuria recently announced that he leaves the featherweight title and moved permanently to the lightweight division, making a future collision with Pimblett even more likely.
Despite their intense rivalry, during the UFC London Ceremonial Weg-Sins this Friday afternoon, Topuria and Pimblett surprisingly put their feud aside and temporarily embraced on stage when they crossed paths.
Topuria teases a new nickname prior to the new UFC challenge
After leaving the title of 145 pounds, Topuria continuously chased a fight against Islam Makhachev, the current king of the lightweight division.
Nevertheless, it is still unclear whether the Spaniard will be the following title challenger of the Russian, where Makhachev and his team promote a fight against Justin Gaethje.
The only thing that is guaranteed to be for Topuria and his next UFC outing is that he will come in with a 'new identity' after teasing earlier this week that he will drop his 'el Matador' bine name.
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