Paddy Pimblett remains a fan of Charles Oliveira, but he was shocked by the way the former lightweight champion approached his fight against Ilia Topuria at UFC 317.
The bout ended after Oliveira stepped into the pocket for an exchange when Topuria unloaded a hellacious right hook that effectively ended the Brazilian’s night, but he connected with a left hand behind it to seal the deal. While there was never much down that Topuria packed that kind of fighting finishing power, Pimblett has no idea what kind of strategy Oliveira was employing.
“I thought if Charles would get him to the later rounds, it might have been a bit different,” Pimblett said on the Verse Us podcast. “I really like Charles but what the f*ck was that game plan, lad? Just stand in front of him and get punched in the face.
“I’d love to know what their game plan was. Because that was half embarrassing. Where did the cut come from? Topuria ended up on top of him, I was like ‘Oliveira’s cut.’ Obviously that would have been in his eye a little bit. Easier to get it but still. What are you doing just standing in the middle and swinging punches with him when he’s a top class boxer and he’s got power. It blew my mind how stupid he could be after that was his 47th pro fight, and he was going in there like an amateur.”
Early in the opening round, Oliveira did manage to drag Topuria down to the ground but it was short lived success as the former featherweight champion scrambled free from the grappling exchange to get back to the feet again.
What perplexed Pimblett most about Oliveira’s game plan was not using the weapons he had available to him that could have given Topuria problems as the shorter, smaller fighter.
“The first 20 seconds, he did [kick him] a little bit,” Pimblett said. “Teeped him, leg kicked him, I was thinking you know we could be in for a tough night for Topuria. Then Charles got it once and just started swinging with him but when he was walking out I did go to Graham [Boylan] and say he looks nervous. When Ilia walked out, he was just smiling. I was like that’s going to play a part in this.”
While there’s surely blame to go around, Pimblett understands that Oliveira has been through plenty of wars during his illustrious career and that could have played a part in Topuria’s knockout.
Pimblett promises that’s not the case with him if he gets the chance to face Topuria next.
“That’s the thing, he’s got loads of damage,” Pimblett said about Oliveira. “I’ve never had a fight like that. I want to have a war with someone but I’ve never had one. Never took a sustained amount of damage in my life. He wouldn’t knock me out. He could hit me with his best punch and I’d laugh in his face.”
Immediately after the UFC 317 main event ended, Pimblett got in the cage for a faceoff with Topuria as the longtime rivals started setting up a potential fight between them in the future.
Pimblett later revealed he’s weighing around 195 pounds currently but he always knew he was going to be a much bigger fighter than Topuria whenever they eventually met.
He expects that size advantage is going to work well for him and Pimblett expects to approach Topuria with a much different strategy than Oliveira did this past Saturday night.
“I’ve said this before in several interviews, people just think he’d steamroll me, but it’s different when there’s that much size difference,” Pimblett said. “People think I’m not good enough to [go against him] but lad, he’s a midget.
“That’s what I said to him, I will finish you, little boy. He’s that much shorter than me, I’m so much wider than him. That plays a part. That’s why people cut weight.”
