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Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria nearly got into a full-on brawl in London ahead of the promotion’s first event in the area since 2019.
Video emerged on Topuria’s Instagram page on Tuesday showing the two UFC London fighters getting into it, with punches thrown. Pimblett and Topuria were separated relatively quickly before it got really out of hand.
Check out the video of the skirmish below:
Topuria, who is slated to face Jai Herbert at Saturday’s event at the O2 Arena, gave his thoughts on why it seemed to go down.
“I warned you! This is what happens when you disrespect me and my country! You saw me and wanted to greet me because you s*** your pants… and you should thank my team because if it wasn’t for them separating me, I would have taken your head off. This is not twitter, this is real life,” Topuria stated on social media.
Pimblett is set to make his second octagon appearance against Rodrigo Vargas in the featured lightweight contest. “The Baddy” didn’t see things the same way as Topuria, as he showed on Twitter.
6 vs 1 and yous never done nothin gang of bitches @Topuriailia
— Paddy The Baddy (@theufcbaddy) March 15, 2022
That’s a screenshot of me slipping a punch he tried to hit me after gettin something bounced off his head an I slipped it why do u think he’s deleted the insta story already
— Paddy The Baddy (@theufcbaddy) March 15, 2022
Post the video lad if u have footage @Topuriailia let’s show the world u coming at me and me standing my ground against a full firm of 6 of u an then u throwing shots that I slip and bounce a hand sanitiser off ur head u little worm
— Paddy The Baddy (@theufcbaddy) March 15, 2022
The UFC has yet to issue a statement on the incident and both fights are expected to still take place Saturday.
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