{"id":886726,"date":"2026-09-07T12:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T12:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/886726\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T12:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T12:38:11","slug":"paddy-pimblett-shares-potential-timeline-and-hit-list-for-ufc-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/886726\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddy Pimblett shares potential timeline and hit list for UFC return"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">Paddy Pimblett is ready and willing to welcome Ilia Topuria back to action, but will the UFC give him the opportunity?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">That\u2019s the big question coming into the end of 2026. At the start of the year, a Pimbett vs. Topuria fight seemed a million miles away. Paddy had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/439569\/paddy-pimblett-blames-ego-for-ufc-324-loss-to-justin-gaethje-i-wanted-to-show-i-could-strike-with-him\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">just lost via decision<\/a> to Justin Gaethje, while Topuria seemed unbeatable. Then Gaethje <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-white-house-2026-fight-card-start-time-full-results-dana-white-conor-mcgregor-cbs-mma\/451694\/justin-gaethje-destroys-opponents-by-sending-direct-lines-of-energy-through-their-faces\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">whooped Topuria<\/a> on the While House lawn and Pimblett submitted Benoit Saint Denis in under a minute. Now a fight between \u201cEl Matador\u201d and \u201cThe Baddy\u201d is interesting.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cI\u2019d love to smash his head in, lad, but we\u2019ll need to wait and see,\u201d Pimblett told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@ezetalkssports\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Eze Obas<\/a> over the weekend. Asked if there\u2019d been any official talks, he said, \u201cNothing yet. No one\u2019s spoke to me about it so we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">There\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-news\/470131\/jon-anik-says-internal-conversations-have-ufc-considering-gaethje-vs-topuria-2-next\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">growing chatter<\/a> that the UFC is thinking about throwing Justin Gaethje and Ilia Topuria right back together for an immediate rematch, which makes dollars if not sense. If so, Paddy\u2019s not picky.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cArman [Tsarukyan], [Justin] Gaethje, [Mauricio] Ruffy, Charles [Oliveira]. There\u2019s loads of names,\u201d Pimblett said about other opponents. \u201cWhen I get told who I\u2019m fighting, I\u2019m sure everyone else will know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">With his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/latest-news\/466447\/200-pound-paddy-pimblett-predicts-heavyweight-retirement-i-just-love-food-too-much\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">impressive weight gain<\/a> between fights, Pimblett isn\u2019t one for short notice turnarounds. But he did share a potential timeline for return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1upudxki _174s0un1 _174s0un0 _1mt21p01\">\u201cIf I fight again this year it\u2019ll be in December, hopefully,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paddy Pimblett is ready and willing to welcome Ilia Topuria back to action, but will the UFC give&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":886727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82,702],"class_list":["post-886726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886726","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=886726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/886726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/886727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=886726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=886726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=886726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}