Paddy Pimblett would be more than willing to fight Ilia Topuria next.
Pimblett re-entered the lightweight title conversation when he quickly submitted Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 329 in June. Prior to that, he lost an interim title fight to Justin Gaethje (28-5 MMA, 11-5 UFC), who went on to upset Topuria at UFC Freedom 250.
Pimblett (24-4 MMA, 8-1 UFC) long has been angling for a matchup with Topuria (17-1 MMA, 9-1 UFC). Now that Topuria lost his lightweight title to Gaethje, could the grudge match finally be next?
"I'd love to smash his head in, lad, but we need to wait and see," Pimblett said of Topuria in an interview with Eze Obas. "Nothing yet. No one's spoke to me about it, so we'll see what happens."
Arman Tsarukyan meets Mauricio Ruffy in
the UFC 331 co-main event on Sept. 19. If not Topuria, Pimblett sees a plethora of options for his next fight.
"Arman, Gaethje, Ruffy, Charles (Oliveira), there’s loads of names," Pimblett said. "When I get told who I'm fighting, I'm sure everyone else will know. If I fight again this year it'll be in December hopefully, but we'll see what happens."
UFC's play-by-play commentator Jon Anik claimed there are internal talks of a potential rematch between Gaethje and Topuria, but nothing has been announced yet.
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Paddy Pimblett on potential Ilia Topuria fight: 'I'd love to smash his head in'
