Ilia Topuria comes clean on cordially greeting Paddy Pimblett at UFC London despite bitter feud

Ilia Topuria has revealed his version of events that led to the viral moment between himself and Paddy Pimblett at the UFC London weigh-ins.

Earlier this month, Topuria and Pimblett made headlines for their interaction at the UFC London ceremonial weigh-ins. The Georgian-Spaniard was on stage with UFC CBO Hunter Campbell when 'The Baddy' walked onto the stage with his teammate Nathan Fletcher, who was fighting on the card.

The two UFC stars then locked eyes and shared a laugh as they fist bumped one another. The moment came as a shock to fans as both Topuria and Pimblett have previously been critical of the other in the past.

Watch the clip here:

Paddy Pimblett would later share his side of the story in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel. According to the Liverpudlian, even though the pair not like each other, it was nice to share a laugh together.

Now, weeks later, Ilia Topuria has revealed his version of events. Speaking in an interview with journalist Irati Prat, the 28-year-old explained they weren't fighting so there was no need to be antagonistic. Translated to English, Topuria said:

"We just weren't in our fighting roles. I went to support a friend of mine, he went to support another friend of his, then we met and we greeted each other. At the end of the day we are athletes. But if we enter the field of combat and we have to fight, then the story changes."

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MMA analyst reacts to Ilia Topuria changing his nickname

Ilia Topuria recently made headlines after revealing he no longer wanted to be referred to as 'El Matador'. Instead, ahead of his switch to the lightweight division, he now wants the name 'La Leyenda' to be his moniker. Translated to English, it means 'The Legend'.

Following the news of his new nickname, MMA analyst Luke Thomas shared his thoughts. According to Thomas, whilst the switch is strange, he can also see the benefits. He explained:

"I'm not going to say I like this because I think it's super f*cking weird but I think it's a good thing. First, he's done super ballsy sh*t like this before, calling himself a UFC champ on his Instagram before fighting the guy...The second thing I'm going to say is either way someone is going to feast here...It's another way of upping the anti here a little bit...Thirdly, let's say he loses, the amount of f*cking vitriol and absolute dancing on his grave that is going to happen would make it an all-timer."

Check out Luke Thomas' comments on Ilia Topuria below (1:25:30):