Things had the potential to get very messy on stage at the UFC London ceremonial weigh-ins on Friday afternoon.
Ahead of his UFC 314 clash against Michael Chandler, Paddy Pimblett will be in the corner of his teammate, Nathan Fletcher when he takes on Caolan Loughran at UFC London on Saturday.
Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria embrace on stage at UFC London
Fortunately for the promotion, ‘The Baddy’ and ‘El Matador’ had been kept away from each other throughout the fight week so far.
Pimblett and Topuria have a mutual hatred for each other, stemming back to when they competed on a UFC London event alongside each other in 2022.
The two ended up clashing in the UFC fighter hotel, with the Brit throwing a bottle of hand sanitizer at the Georgian, sparking the start of their rivalry.
Since then, the two UFC stars have hinted at potentially fighting each other but them being in different weight classes has kept them apart up until this point.
Topuria recently announced he was vacating the featherweight title and permanently moving up to the lightweight division, making a future clash with Pimblett even more likely.
Despite their intense rivalry, during the UFC London ceremonial weigh-ins this Friday afternoon, Topuria and Pimblett surprisingly put their feud aside and momentarily embraced on stage when they crossed paths.
Topuria teases new nickname ahead of new UFC challenge
After vacating the 145lb title, Topuria has continuously chased a fight against Islam Makhachev, the current king of the lightweight division.
Despite that, it is unclear as of yet whether the Spaniard will be the Russian’s next title challenger, with Makhachev and his team favoring a fight against Justin Gaethje.
The only thing that is guaranteed for Topuria and his next UFC outing, is that he will come into it with a ‘new identity’ after teasing earlier this week that he will be dropping his ‘El Matador’ nickname.
Rupert Hartwell 
Benedict Kingsley