Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria were held back by security during the UFC 282 press conference to prevent another scuffle from breaking out between them.
The UFC rivals had previously came to blows in a hotel lobby before their respective fights in London earlier this year. Topuria was angered by comments Pimblett made about his home country of Georgia, as the Scouser had joked about Russians "terrorising Georgians' lives". Pimblett threw a hand sanitiser bottle off Topuria's head in the exchange which has since led to him nicknaming the fighter "hand sanitiser boy".
Expanding on comments he made about Pimblett being "escorted out the back door" to avoid a repeat of their meeting in London, Topuria said at the press conference: "He just quits when he sees me coming. You wanna talk to me man to man, you said something about me and then I went to your country and slapped your face. I walked like a king in your city and what did you do? Shut up."
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Pimblett fired back by stating: "He hasn't stopped tweeted about me all week, he needs to sort his life out. That little bum is irrelevant. I haven't seen him all week the UFC have kept us apart, when I saw him last time he got a hand sanitiser bottle bounced off his fod. Little nit. Hand sanitiser boy. Nobody even knows his name, he's known as hand sanitiser boy the little mongrel.
'The Baddy' then took aim at Topuria's nationality, stating: "You pretend to be Georgian but you're not. You were born in Germany and you live in Spain, you're a little mongrel that's what you are." Topuria issued a threatening reply by saying: "Shut up, if not I'm going to stand up and crush your face right here.
Pimblett welcomed his rival's threat as he said: "Do it then you little fart, do it then you little p****y. What? Do it, come on, do something then. Stand up, what will you do? You'll do nothing you little fart, go and sit back down you little p****. You little mushroom, little chorizo Spanish sausage.
Topuria told Mirror Fighting that he would welcome a future fight with 'The Baddy', but he doesn't think his rival will accept the offer. "I don't think he has the balls to face me and to shut himself in the octagon against me, so f*** him. You see, he didn't give me a response, because he's scared of me," he added.
