Kamaru Usman is not a big fan of Paddy Pimblett potentially getting the next title shot against UFC lightweight champion Ilia Topuria.
Pimblett and Topuria faced off in the cage after “El Matador” won the vacant 155 pound title via a first round knockout of Charles Oliveira back in June. The two have been feuding for years now, and while few would give the No. 9 ranked “Baddy” much of a chance to beat Topuria, a lot would pay to see them scrap.
Paddy recently prodded the UFC to go ahead and book the fight, declaring on Instagram that he was “Just waiting on that [call].” If they do go that way, former welterweight champion Kamaru Usman believes it’ll be another sign of the UFC’s slide into pure entertainment over meritocracy.
“It’s not Paddy’s fault,” Usman said on his Pound 4 Pound podcast. “Paddy has done a great job with the opposition he’s been given to even put himself in this conversation. Paddy has done a phenomenal job. But if we’re looking at the lightweight rankings, we’ve got Ilia Topuria and I’m assuming next, you’ve got Arman Tsarukyan. It makes sense.”
“If you’re not gonna do Arman Tsarukyan or Justin Gaethje, then you’ve got Dan Hooker there. You’ve got Mateusz Gamrot. You’ve got Beneil Dariush there in front of Paddy Pimblett. So to skip all of these guys to just give [Pimblett] a title shot, that kinda spits in the face of the merit of the best fighting the next best guy.”
The UFC hasn’t tipped its hand on which direction it plans to go. But if they want their biggest new star to compete sooner rather than later, they might be tempted to give into his demands and serve up Pimblett.
We’d prefer Topuria vs. Tsarukyan or Topuria vs. Gaethje, but we’d also prefer Topuria vs. anyone in December over no Topuria until spring 2026.
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