Pimblett kept the bottle. If Topuria ever shares a press conference with him, it is coming too

Paddy Pimblett has kept the receipt from the most famous hotel argument in recent UFC history — and he plans to put it on the table.

The receipt is a bottle of hand sanitizer. Pimblett threw it at Ilia Topuria during their 2022 clash at a London fighter hotel, and four years later it is signed and sitting on display in his gym, waiting for a press conference that does not exist yet.

"I hope [Ilia is next], I hate him," Pimblett told Jeremy Piven.

"He got a push because of the stuff with me. He got pushed fast through the rankings because of it. No one knew who he was. I've always got that exact bottle of hand sanitizer that I threw at his head… I've signed it and now it's just sat in the gym. So, if I do ever fight him and have a press conference with him, that will be coming with me. And I'll just sit it on the desk. It'll be quite funny."

The bottle is the prop; the feud is the product. It started in March 2022 during UFC London fight week, when Topuria and his team confronted Pimblett at the fighter hotel over past tweets Topuria found offensive to his Georgian heritage. Punches were thrown, security stepped in, and Pimblett hit Topuria in the head with the bottle. He has called Topuria "Hand Sanitizer Boy" ever since.

The rivalry has refused to cool. At UFC 317 in June 2025, after Topuria won the lightweight championship, Pimblett walked into the cage for an unapproved, tense face-off. Topuria shoved him. Dana White was critical afterward about how Pimblett got in there at all.

But — and this matters before anyone books the fight in their head — no Pimblett vs Topuria bout is announced, and Pimblett himself has said his priority is elsewhere. On the same podcast round, he said he would rather face current titleholder Justin Gaethje for a second time.

"I'd rather beat Ilia than beat Justin but Justin's got the belt and that's what we do it for," Pimblett said.

He is also not ready to fight right now. He recently had stem-cell injections in his left hand and has been adapting his training around it — kicks, elbows, right hand — with no firm return date.

So the bottle stays in the gym for now: a signed souvenir of 2022, a punchline for a press conference that may never happen, and the clearest possible sign that Pimblett, 24-4, and Topuria, 17-1, still genuinely dislike each other. Some rivalries are manufactured. This one comes with its own evidence, on a shelf, waiting for a desk to sit on.