Punches Thrown As Paddy Pimblett Is Confronted By Rival UFC Star Over Offensive Tweet

Things have kicked off massively just a few days out from the UFC's return to England.

MMA fan favourite Paddy Pimblett got into a heated altercation with fellow fighter Ilia Topuria with water bottles and punches thrown during the skirmish.

Pimblett and Topuria will both take to the cage at UFC Fight Night in London this weekend, although tensions well and truly boiled over when the duo came face-to-face in a hotel.

Topuria, who is set to fight Jai Herbert, was reportedly upset with a tweet Pimblett fired off last year.

"Lad how stupid are these Georgians man... no wonder the Russians terrorise their lives," the now-deleted post read.

Liverpool local Pimblett found himself on the receiving end of some backlash as a result of the tweet and was forced to issue a public apology - although Topuria clearly hasn't forgotten about it.

When the Georgian mixed martial artist saw Pimblett in the fighters' hotel in London, he decided to confront him about it.

In a video posted online, Topuria can be seen approaching Pimblett before throwing a punch in his direction.

Pimblett appears to duck out of the way before returning fire himself as security sprung into action to seperate the two fiery individuals.

A few not-so-pleasant verbals were then traded as the two were dragged away from each other.

Twitter

Topuria posted the clip on his own Instagram account, saying: "I warned you! This is what happens when you disrespect me and my country!

"You saw me and wanted to greet me because you s*** your pants... and you should thank my team because if it wasn't for them separating me, I would have taken your head off.

"This is not Twitter, this is real life!"

Paddy The Baddy also took to social media to have his say on the matter.

He tweeted: "Post the video lad if you have footage @Topuriailia let's show the world you coming at me and me standing my ground against a full firm of 6 of you an then you throwing shots that I slip and bounce a hand sanitiser off your head you little worm."

Pimblett, who has quickly emerged as one of the most likely characters in the UFC since his arrival in the promotion, is due to take on Rodrigo Vargas next.

And if his UFC debut last year is anything to go by, then expect nothing but fireworks.

Topics: Paddy Pimblett, UFC, Australia, MMA

Max Sherry

Max Sherry is a journalist for SPORTbible Australia. After migrating Down Under from London as a teenager, he instantly fell in love with Aussie sport and its culture. From NRL to AFL, cricket to rugby — you name it, Max watches it (with a beer in hand, of course). During his time at Fox Sports, he worked in the football department covering the Premier League, A-League, Socceroos and Matildas. Born a stone's throw away from West Ham's training ground, Max is obviously a die-hard Liverpool fan.

@maxysherry