Paddy Pimblett has accused his UFC rival Ilia Topuria of using a homophobic slur after he labelled him a "d*** eater".
Pimblett and Topuria have been trading words ever since butting heads before their fights at UFC London in March. The pair got into an altercation in a hotel lobby, with punches being thrown and Pimblett throwing a hand sanitiser bottle at his rival after Topuria confronted him.
The two have been on a collision course to fight since then, but Pimblett has dismissed Topuria's call out by labelling him 'hand sanitiser boy'. Responding to a fan on Twitter, Pimblett was told he should fight Topuria to which he replied: "Everybody says they want to fight me bro, called clickbait!
"What do u think he chatted s*** for and caused a scene in London? So people actually knew who he was. Nobody even knew him until I bounced a bottle of his head the lil bum, I see him all week with no cameras and he [did] nothing!"
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Topuria then replied: "eres un come pinga", which translates to "you are a d*** eater". Pimblett wrote back: "Pretty homophobic don’t ya think mate? What if I actually did? What would u say then? F****ng weirdo u stop using my name for publicity u little b**** stick to being homophobic in ur own country."
The pair's rivalry stems from a tweet Pimblett wrote that Topuria felt was disrespectful to his home country of Georgia. In a response to a fan, Pimblett replied: "Lad how stupid are these Georgians man?" Alongside a series of crying laughing emojis, before adding: "No wonder the Russians terrorise their lives".
Topuria explained why he was so offended by Pimblett's original tweet whilst speaking on The MMA Hour : "When I saw it, I was surprised. I didn’t believe it when I saw that tweet, because in 2008 I was living in Georgia when the war happened.
"It was a very difficult time for me, my family, my friends and for my country. A lot of innocent people, kids, were dying in that war, and to see how someone is joking about that, it makes my blood boil."
'El Matador' promised to make Pimblett pay for his words when they met in person, which resulted in their London scuffle. Both Pimblett and Topuria picked up wins in March. Pimblett is booked to fight Jordan Leavitt next whilst Topuria doesn't have a fight booked.
