{"id":876808,"date":"2026-09-02T00:36:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T00:36:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/876808\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T00:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T00:36:17","slug":"sean-omalley-weighs-in-on-ilia-topuria-vs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/876808\/","title":{"rendered":"Sean O\u2019Malley weighs in on Ilia Topuria vs.\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sean O\u2019Malley has weighed in on the potential Ilia Topuria vs. Paddy Pimblett blockbuster, revealing who he believes has the edge.<\/p>\n

A massive showdown between former lightweight champion Ilia Topuria<\/a> and Brit superstar Paddy Pimblett<\/a> is rumored for December, with rumors swirling online. Recently, former bantamweight Sean O’Malley<\/a> weighed in and shared his prediction on the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sean O\u2019Malley gives Paddy Pimblett the edge over Ilia Topuria\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his latest YouTube video, O\u2019Malley and his coach, Tim Welch, discussed many current MMA news topics. At one point, Welch mentioned the ongoing rumors that Topuria might fight Pimblett in December.\u00a0<\/p>\n

O\u2019Malley emphasized that it would be a huge matchup, as it will mark Topuria\u2019s return after a huge setback against Justin Gaethje<\/a> at White House, where he lost his lightweight title and suffered a career-first loss. Fans want to see if he will return to the greatness he has consistently shown inside the octagon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOh! Wowzers,\u201d O\u2019Malley exclaimed. \u201cThat would be huge. That\u2019d be in Vegas, probably. That would be sick. That\u2019d be a massive f**king fight. Even Ilia coming off this loss, that would be a massive f**king fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, O\u2019Malley slightly gave the edge to Pimblett, pointing out Topuria’s loss, and expressed skepticism that the Spaniard will have the same mental state he had when he was undefeated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cRight now, I\u2019d probably lean towards Paddy,\u201d O\u2019Malley said in the video. \u201cI don\u2019t know. It\u2019s hard to say. That seems like a coin flip for me. It\u2019s hard to see where Ilia is at mentally,\u201d O’Malley said.<\/p>\n

The former bantamweight champion feels that Topuria will come back stronger, but believes Pimblett is riding with huge confidence after his recent victory, and said that the Brit would be a huge test for the former lightweight champion, pointing out the physicality.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI still think he\u2019s going to come back and just going to tear to bits, but Paddy\u2019s also so f**king big, confident. He\u2019s a f**king scowzer, and scowzers don\u2019t get knocked out. \u201cThey would look like completely different weight classes. Paddy looks like a 70; Ilia looks like a fifty-fiver, just because the height, but like thickness. Ilia is fifty-five, but he\u2019s just not very tall, man,\u201d O’Malley continued.<\/p>\n

Check out Sean O’Malley’s comments below:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Topuria was left in a bloodbath against Gaethje at White House. After the fourth round, his corner stopped the fight. He suffered a broken nose and orbital fractures in both eyes. However, his recent photos seemed to indicate that he has now healed the injury, but his return after such a setback, given that it was his first defeat, has raised questions that will now be answered when he steps back inside the octagon next time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Pimblett suffered his first UFC<\/a> career loss to the same man Topuria lost to, Gaethje. The Brit faced him at UFC 324 in a back-and-forth battle, and he lost via unanimous decision. He bounced back from the defeat and delivered a career-best performance by submitting Benoit Saint Denis in under a minute at UFC 329.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett\u2019s long-standing feud makes the potential fight even more intriguing<\/p>\n

Topuria and Pimblet have a storyline that makes the match more interesting, as they are bitter rivals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rivalry’s biggest chapter happened during UFC London fight week in March 2022, when the Spaniard and his entourage confronted a solo Pimblett in a hotel kitchen over online comments. After Pimblett hurled a bottle of hand sanitizer at Topuria’s head, Topuria retaliated with punches before security intervened.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since then, they have continued to take shots at each other. Over the years, they have also emerged as the biggest superstars of the UFC, and the promotion will likely make this fight this year or in the near future.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sean O\u2019Malley has weighed in on the potential Ilia Topuria vs. Paddy Pimblett blockbuster, revealing who he believes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":876809,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,17499,785,17498,13421,85,787],"class_list":["post-876808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-ilia-topuria","tag-mma","tag-paddy-pimblett","tag-sean-omalley","tag-sports","tag-ufc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876808"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876808\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}