Daniel Cormier has claimed the UFC wanted to book a fight between Paddy Pimblett and Justin Gaethje, as the lightweight title picture remains difficult to read.
On Saturday, Arman Tsarukyan beat Dan Hooker in Qatar to solidify his status as No 1 contender to Ilia Topuria, who won the vacant belt in June after giving up the featherweight title.
However, fifth-ranked Pimblett and fourth-ranked Gaethje have also staked their claims to face Topuria; “Paddy The Baddy” and the Spanish-Georgian have a grudge that dates back to 2022, while former interim champion Gaethje has threatened to retire if he does not get a title shot.
Now, UFC champion-turned-commentator Cormier has addressed the complicated title picture at 155lb, after Topuria said the UFC had not approached him about his next fight.
“I know for a fact that they wanted to do Paddy versus Justin,” said Cormier on his YouTube channel on Wednesday. “A win over Justin after what [Pimblett has] done already, now I would’ve bought Paddy fighting for the belt right now.”
It seemed Cormier, 46, was mentioning a hypothetical result if Liverpool’s Pimblett had beaten Gaethje sometime this year.
“Because I still believe that Paddy needs to continue to grow in the Octagon a little bit,” Cormier continued, “[but] he’s righted the ship, and now he’s fought so well that we go: ‘Man, the way he beat [Michael] Chandler, we’ve never seen that before.’
“But Ilia’s a different beast, he’s a savage. But so is Arman Tsarukyan. I believe that Arman vs Ilia is the fight, man, 100 per cent. From the interactions they have, the way that you can tell those guys don’t like each other…”
Cormier, a former light-heavyweight and heavyweight champion, then referenced the escalation of Topuria and Tsarukyan’s feud this week. Topuria posted a video – recorded in June, per Tsarukyan – of himself greeting the Armenian with a touch on the face and an embrace. “El Matador” claimed he had slapped Tsarukyan, who dismissed the idea.
“Ilia said he slapped him the other day, Arman says he touched his face,” Cormier went on. “It’s easy to build a fight between these two, because when you build a fight between these two, you feel like it’s going to be very competitive.
“You feel like there is a chance Arman Tsarukyan can win, but you also know that there is not a person in the world that Ilia Topuria can’t beat.
“With these great champions, there is nothing better than going into a fight knowing that they are going to have their hands full and they’re going to be challenged.”
Pimblett’s own feud with Topuria, 28, dates back to 2022, when the latter confronted the 30-year-old over tweets that Pimblett had posted, which Topuria alleged were anti-Georgian. The confrontation, at the fighter hotel before UFC London, saw Pimblett through a bottle of hand sanitiser at Topuria.
The pair crossed paths again last week, with each man present in Qatar to support teammates; Topuria helped to coach his brother Aleksandre, who won his fight, while Pimblett’s teammates Luke Riley and Shaqueme Rock had mixed fortunes – with Riley winning and Rock losing. In this latest run-in, Topuria called his rival a “p***y”.
Pimblett last fought in April, dominating and stopping former Bellator champion Chandler to stay unbeaten in the UFC. Meanwhile, Topuria’s last bout was his first-round knockout of former UFC champion Charles Oliveira in June.
Gaethje last fought in March, when he outpointed Rafael Fiziev for the second time. However, the American suffered a brutal loss in his previous bout, as he was dominated by former featherweight king Max Holloway and knocked out in the last second of their 25-minute clash.
