The immediate future of the UFC Lightweight division is uncertain.<\/p>\n
Ilia Topuria smoked Charles Oliveira to capture 155-pound gold (watch it)<\/a>, but what\u2019s next for \u201cEl Matador?\u201d His in-cage faceoff with Paddy Pimblett would seem to imply \u201cThe Baddy\u201d is next, but UFC CEO Dana White disavowed that spectacle<\/a>. Justin Gaethje is ready to retire<\/a> if he doesn\u2019t get the next shot, and Arman Tsarukyan is willing to do anything to prove that he can make weight<\/a> and show up to regain his missed opportunity. Max Holloway is injured<\/a> right now, but he\u2019s a deserving contender as well whenever he\u2019s back to full health. That\u2019s not even mentioning Islam Makhachev, who could return to 155-pounds at any time!<\/p>\n It\u2019s crowded at the top, which is a good problem for a division. Recently, Pimblett weighed in on the confusing situation on his YouTube channel<\/a>, and he still has his eyes set on Ilia Topuria.<\/p>\n \u201cAll I kept being asked [while I was in Las Vegas] was \u2018Who are you fighting? When are you fighting Ilia?,\u2019\u201d Pimblett said (via MMA Fighting<\/a>). \u201cI have no idea. Hopefully, it is going to be me vs. the chorizo next, and I think that\u2019s what all the Americans want. Because every American I\u2019ve bumped into keeps saying, \u2018When are you going to smash that sausage\u2019s head in?\u2019 I\u2019m hoping that that gets sorted.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s no surprise that Pimblett wants to settle his grudge match with Topuria with UFC gold on the line \u2014 that would be a huge fight!<\/a> However, Pimblett also admits that are more deserving contenders on a rankings or merits base. He\u2019s willing to fight another top contender, so long as Tsarukyan doesn\u2019t receive the next shot. Per \u201cThe Baddy,\u201d Tsarukyan is soft and trying to buy his title shot.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI understand that I\u2019m ranked No. 9, or something, so other people probably are more deserving but posh boy definitely isn\u2019t,\u201d Pimblett continued. \u201cLittle rich boy Arman showing how desperate he is, offering him a million pounds to fight him. Spoiled rich baby trying to pay their way out of things, that\u2019s why he quit when he was making weight in a bath like a little b\u2014ch.\u201d<\/p>\n Pimblett continued on to say Gaethje refuses to fight him, and that Dan Hooker \u201ccan eat s\u2014t.\u201d<\/p>\n Hopefully, some match ups will start to materialize in the near future, because a lot of top-ranked Lightweights are sitting on their hands in hopes of a title shot. If you were a UFC matchmaker, how would you align this current crop of Lightweight contenders?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The immediate future of the UFC Lightweight division is uncertain. Ilia Topuria smoked Charles Oliveira to capture 155-pound…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57020,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,33601,638,82,702],"class_list":["post-57019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57019\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57020"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}