"Defend that and I will go up" - Paddy Pimblett plans welterweight move after beating Ilia Topuria

Paddy Pimblett is already dreaming of two-division UFC gold before his big fight in January. The English star faces Justin Gaethje at UFC 324 with the interim lightweight title on the line.

The current UFC lightweight champion, Ilia Topuria, is taking a break due to personal reasons, and the promotion set up this fight to find his next challenger.

This is Pimblett’s biggest UFC fight but the Liverpool-born fighter has his eyes set on moving up a division.

Pimblett was speaking to Red Corner MMA and confirmed a move up to welterweight should he achieve some feats:

“I will win this interim belt and then I will beat Ilia [Topuria] up and take the proper belt. Defend that and I will go up and win the welterweight belt.”

Pimblett is the latest star to bring up two-division glory. Islam Makhachev recently achieved that after defeating Jack Della Maddalena and is the current welterweight champion.

Khamzat Chimaev, who is the middleweight champion, also eyes moving up, and has challenged the UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira several times.

Check out Paddy Pimblett’s comments below (00:32):

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Paddy Pimblett predicts huge shock at UFC 324

Paddy Pimblett also provided his take on how the fight against Justin Gaethje would go. The Englishman claimed that people were in for a shock and added that he would finish his rival similar to what he did in his previous bout.

In the same interview, Pimblett brought up how he ended Michael Chandler and wanted to do the same to Gaethje:

“Everyone’s going to be shocked, to be honest, I think I am going to knock him out. People won’t expect that, they will think I will grapple him, take him down but I’m not. I am going to come out and put it on… I don’t see him getting past the third, just like Chandler.”

The 30-year-old beat Chandler at UFC 314 via TKO and was handed the Performance of the Night bonus.

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