Las Vegas, NV – UFC featherweight Ilia Topuria will put his undefeated record up against Bryce Mitchell’s at UFC 282 on Saturday night in one of the more exciting matchups on the card.
“Yeah of course it get me motivated when they called me and tell me that I’m going to face someone undefeated. So it’s a good motivation for me, and I know that someone’s going to lose his undefeated,” Topuria told Cageside Press among other media on Wednesday.
“It’s (not) going to be me.”
Topuria (12-0) makes his return to the 145 pounds following a stop at lightweight when he took on Jai Herbert in March.
“In reality I moved up to lightweight division before because no one wanted to fight me at 145 so I had to move to stay active and now I’m coming back for the division,” Topuria said.
“When I’m going to finish all the business I have in 145 I want to move up to 155 because I can put everyone to sleep. I can finish anyone.”
One name at lightweight that fans have been looking for Topuria to face at some point is Paddy Pimblett. Pimblett and Topuria have a bit of bad blood. They both have attacked each other on social media and had an altercation at a hotel in London back in March.
“I don’t really care about that you know. F*ck him,” he said.
Just days ago Topuria posted on Twitter that he had to wait until Pimblett was let out of the UFC PI in Las Vegas before he could enter.
When I arrived at the PI this morning , I had to wait until they got paddy out the backdoor😂. I am no bully, you don’t have to avoid me. You already apologized.I still don’t like you .As long as you behave yourself when you see me, I won’t give a fuck about you.
— Ilia Topuria (@Topuriailia) December 2, 2022
“I went the last, two days ago, to the PI. They take him (out) the back door. He’s not coming to the hotel. Why? Because he’s scared. So f*ck him. I’m not bully, you know,” Topuria said.
“So if someone is trying to avoid me, what can I do?”
Watch the entire media day scrum with Ilia Topuria above. Topuria takes on Bryce Mitchell on the PPV portion of UFC 282 on Dec.3rd at T-Mobile Arena.
