Paddy Pimblett texted Ilia Topuria weeks before their UFC London confrontation telling him to "say to his face" things he had been posting online.
The duo, who both fight in the lightweight division, got into a physical altercation at the fighter hotel ahead of this weekend's event at the O2 Arena that saw punches and bottles thrown. Neither man was injured in the scuffle, but Pimblett threw a bottle at his rival, and has since branded him with the nickname "hand sanitiser boy".
But the incident was sparked by a text sent from Pimblett to his rival, who is ranked No.15 in the featherweight division but fights Jai Herbert this weekend at lightweight. During an appearance on The MMA Hour yesterday, the Georgian fighter said that the pair had gone back-and-forth over a controversial old Pimblett tweet, where the Scouse fighter had joked about Russians "terrorising Georgians' lives".
"I texted with him," Topuria told host Ariel Helwani. "I don’t remember what I tweeted, and when they gave me the fight in London. He texted me like three weeks ago like; ‘I can’t wait to see you in London. We’ll see if you have the balls to tell me everything you texted me on Twitter.’ Bulls***.”
Pimblett's tweet, which had been a response to a fan, said "Lad how stupid are these Georgians man?" Alongside a series of crying laughing emojis, before adding "No wonder the Russians terrorise their lives".
This rubbed Topuria the wrong way, tweeting last April "You think that’s funny?! In that attack by Russia against us, many innocent people lost their lives, including children! The one who supports terrorism and racism is one of them! This tweet will haunt you for life!"
And he stands by his take on the tweet, saying that as a Georgian during Russian attacks he witnessed the destruction first hand, which is no laughing matter. “It didn’t happen because he called me something yesterday," he explained. "It comes from a long time ago
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“He was arguing with one of my close friends once on Twitter and he posted like, ‘Now I understand why Russia destroyed Georgia, because you’re dumb,’ and it makes my blood boil. 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, and it was a very difficult time for me, for my family, for all my friends, 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."
Pimblett is set to face Mexican Kazula Vargas on the main card of Saturday's event, while Topuria faces the Brit Herbert to open the TV portion of the event.
