Paddy Pimblett texted Ilia Topuria weeks before their UFC London confrontation telling him to "say to his face" things he had been posting online.
The duo, who both fight in the lightweight division, got into a physical altercation at the fighter hotel ahead of this weekend's event at the O2 Arena that saw punches and bottles thrown. Neither man was injured in the scuffle, but Pimblett threw a bottle at his rival, and has since branded him with the nickname "hand sanitiser boy".
But the incident was sparked by a text sent from Pimblett to his rival, who is ranked No.15 in the featherweight division but fights Jai Herbert this weekend at lightweight. During an appearance on The MMA Hour yesterday, the Georgian fighter said that the pair had gone back-and-forth over a controversial old Pimblett tweet, where the Scouse fighter had joked about Russians "terrorising Georgians' lives".
