Paddy Pimblett has a name in mind for his next fight with the lightweight division having been dealt a big shock recently.
Earlier this week, UFC boss Dana White announced that Islam Makhachev has shockingly vacated his lightweight title in pursuit of a welterweight title fight against Jack Della Maddalena.
And with that, White revealed that the UFC 317 main event on International Fight Week will be a vacant lightweight title fight between Ilia Topuria and Charles Oliveira.
‘El Matador’ has only fought at lightweight once before, narrowly avoiding defeat when he came from behind and knocked out Jai Herbert in 2022.
Paddy Pimblett makes audacious callout following lightweight news
With Topuria moving up from featherweight and being picked to fight for the title immediately, he has beaten out several longtime 155lb contenders, Paddy Pimblett being one of them.
Paddy ‘The Baddy’ picked up the biggest win of his career thus far this past April at UFC 314, destroying Michael Chandler on the way to a third round stoppage win.
Despite only being ranked number eight in the division, the Brit is on an impressive seven fight win streak and is one of the most popular fighters in the division.
Pimblett is widely regarded as a future star in the UFC and has been compared to Conor McGregor by Dana White.
And after missing out on the lightweight title shot, Pimblett has an idea of who he would like to fight next in a number one contender fight.
“I know for a fact that if I beat (Justin) Gaethje, I’m next in line,” Pimblett told UFC on TNT Sports.
“It could be (next for me), yeah. It’s just whether he says yes or not, isn’t it? He’d be fighting down the rankings again. (I’d like to fight him) in Abu Dhabi in October, that Pay-per-view, that’s when I want to fight, that’s when I’ll be gearing towards and after what I did to Chandler, I think I’d finish Justin Gaethje,” he continued.
Justin Gaethje will have his pick of two contenders
Despite Pimblett’s callout of Justin Gaethje, the former UFC interim lightweight champion has also been called out for a fight by Arman Tsarukyan.
‘The Highlight’ was hopeful of fighting Islam Makhachev after the Russian outlined him as a potential opponent as they have never fought before, however, things didn’t come to fruition for the lightweight star.
With Gaethje likely not having many more fights left in his career, it is fair to say that a fight against ‘The Baddy’ would be a bigger fight than a potential fight against ‘Ahalkalakets’.