“We put on fights between the best fighters,” Dana White once said of the UFC. And indeed, that is what the promotion has been for the most part. However, UFC lightweight star Paddy Pimblett fears that the promotion may be moving away from its motto with one of its recent signings.

“Some people only get signed because of who their brother is as well. Look at Ilia’s brother. He’s only fought crabs. He’s never fought anyone decent, and now he gets to fight in the UFC because his brother’s an absolute mushroom,” Pimblett told ESPN MMA in a recent interview.

‘Paddy the Baddy’, of course, is talking about Aleksandre Topuria, older brother of soon-to-be-former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria. Aleksandre made his promotional debut at UFC 312 in February opposite Colby Thicknesse in a bantamweight bout. The older Topuria gave a pretty good account of himself, and wiped the floor with his opponent, shutting him down completely to win a unanimous decision victory.

However, many feel that if Aleksandre weren’t Ilia’s brother, he would not have been signed to the UFC. After all, the ‘El Conquistador’ was 5-1 before joining the UFC. Moreover, he had not fought in nearly two years before his promotional debut. While most of his wins have come via stoppages, those were in much less competitive regional promotions than the UFC. So yeah, maybe Pimblett is correct about the older Topuria who did get some ‘Dana White Privilege’, an infamous term coined by Tony Ferguson at the UFC 262 presser.

If it was any other fighter, they would have had to go through the Contenders’ Series route. Even promising prodigies and other promotional champions like Austin Bashi or Artem Vakhitov have to prove themselves on DWCS. Only the biggest stars, who have proven themselves at the highest level in other promotions like Michael ‘Venom’ Page, Michael Chandler, and Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire get the privilege of direct signings.

But to be fair to ‘El Conquistador’ did prove himself at UFC 312! Even if he wasn’t fighting the toughest of competition. And guess what, if Aleksandre turns out to be a fluke and isn’t good enough for the promotion, Dana White probably won’t hesitate in kicking him out. For the unversed, Khabib Nurmagomedov’s cousin Abubakar was shown the door by the promotion last year after going 2-2 in his last four.

And Ilia Topuria, despite his superstardom, is no Khabib, one of the best and most popular fighters in the history of the sport. On the other hand, it is understandable why Paddy Pimblett would trash Aleksandre being signed to the UFC. Ilia, who is now in the same weight class as Pimblett and looking for an opponent at the moment, has a long history with the Englishman.

Could Paddy Pimblett be Ilia Topuria’s next opponent?

Ilia Topuria is in no-man’s land at the moment. Although ‘El Matador’ has moved up to lightweight, who, when, and where he would fight next remains unknown. Of course, Topuria has long wanted to fight the champ Islam Makhachev for the gold. However, the Dagestani has asked Topuria to prove that he actually belongs at lightweight by beating another top contender first.

“I am not going to give him a chance right away because he hasn’t done all the work in his weight class. He has only one defense. He has other contenders he should have beaten but he doesn’t want to cut weight anymore,” Makhachev told Russian sports outlet ‘Match TV’ in a recent interview.

So who then? Well, by the way, Pimblett is talking about Topuria. Moreover, it seems the Englishman is ready to fight him. “He [Topuria] wouldn’t be where he is in the UFC without jumping on the back of my name. So yeah, I do wanna settle that beef one day. Let’s see if he steps up,” Pimblett told Jamal Niaz in a recent interview.

Of course, the #12 Pimblett isn’t ranked high enough yet to interest Ilia at the moment. But with the blonde-haired Englishman set to face #7 Michael Chandler at UFC 314 next month. So, maybe a win could get him into the conversation as ‘El Matador’s next opponent.

Pimblett and Topuria have a feud going back to 2022. This stems from the loud-mouthed Liverpool native speaking ill about ‘El Matador’s Georgian heritage. The duo almost came to blows at a hotel back in 2022 after Pimblett threw some hand sanitizer at ‘El Matador’. As you can see, there is no love lost between the two lightweights. And it wasn’t surprising to see the Englishman trash Ilia’s brother. What do you think about Paddy Pimblett’s thoughts on Aleksandre Topuria being signed to the UFC?