Michael Bisping sees Ilia Topuria vs. Paddy Pimblett as the biggest fight the UFC can make right now.
Topuria (17-0 MMA, 9-0 UFC) faced off with Pimblett (23-3 MMA, 7-0 UFC) in the octagon immediately after he knocked out Charles Oliveira to claim the lightweight title in Saturday’s UFC 317 main event at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
Lightweight contenders Arman Tsarukyan and Justin Gaethje were also in attendance for the fight, but Bisping sees the UFC capitalizing on the already existing beef between Topuria and Pimblett in the world’s most famous arena.
“The man’s a finishing machine,” Bisping said of Topuria on his YouTube channel. “Can Paddy take those kind of shots? I don’t know. Can Paddy take him down? I don’t know. Can Paddy hang on the ground, can submit him on the ground? I don’t know about that, either. But guess what?
“All of those questions will be answered when they fight at Madison Square Garden. You can bet your bottom dollar on it. I almost guarantee it, because I don’t know – who knows what the UFC has planned? Maybe they’ve got some surprise up their sleeve. But I can 99.999 percent say Paddy Pimblett, Ilia Topuria, they will be fighting at Madison Square Garden.”
Luckily for Pimblett, Topuria appears to be interested in defending his title against him the most. Pimblett compared their rivalry to Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov, and went as far as saying he hates Topuria.
