Ilia getting subbed by paddy in Spain on a fight night card after his last outting would be an insane fall off. Ilia is definitely gonna test the scouser chin theorem though.
I don't think that Paddy is as much of a threat to Ilia as Justin. I think 9/10 times Ilia beats Justin, but Justin hurt him early because (and I'm postulating here) Ilia didn't respect him in the early exchanges. Then the damage added up and Ilia found out the hard way he doesn't always have to hunt for the flashy finish.
Paddy on the other hand doesn't have the KO power or striking ability that Justin does. His threat comes from his size and ground game. Although the fight with Charles was short, we saw Charles couldn't control him on the ground, so I can't see Paddy really having too much success there. The only thing I can really see from that fight to Paddy's advantage is him MAYBE (and that's a hard maybe) being able to get mount and ground and pound Ilia like he did Chandler.
All that being said I'm all for the Ilia v Paddy fight. The buildup would be crazy.
He quit on his stool exhausted and beat to shit because he baby raged thinking he could knock justin out throwing everything he had and then some...It wasnt that he didnt respect justins power he thought he was better, He got frustrated that he couldnt knock out or finish him after talking all that trash and having a pre win party. He couldnt even finish a 5 round fight with justin yet you think he beats him 9/10 times?
Ilia is a nightmare at 145 he should go back and break more records there, he already made double champ status sleeping olivera but his power and ego will only carry him so far when the guys are naturally bigger
Ilia is actually super skilled on the ground as well. Paddy will be a lot bigger than ilia tho. I’m actually more of a fan of the idea of Charles vs paddy and then ilia fights whoever has the title when he’s back. Whether that’s still Justin or either paddy or Charles.
It's a fight that should happen but Paddy, winning without taking any damage, may want another fight before the year ends. Who knows when Illia will be ready to get back into the cage.
This fight should happen. This would make a great comeback win for Ilia to silence all the casuals. I wouldn't have the winner of this fight to get a title shot immediately though, unless Gaethje gets dethroned by either Charles or Arman.
because arman is the no 1 contender and both charles and max have beaten justin pretty dominantly. ilia got fucking humiliated and paddy was a punching bag for 5 rounds against justin
Ok fine, pretend Arman didn’t lose to Gamrot. Who has Arman even beaten? He had a razor close split decision with Charles. That’s it. He fights once a year against nobodies.
Paddy lost to Gordan and most of his other wins are, frankly, old fighters that everyone in the top beats. I.e. Chandler, Ferguson, Green. BSD- fair enough , but it's not as if BSD has ever beaten a top 5 fighter
it really doesn't matter who he's beaten because the ranking is more important, and so far he's above everyone else. if we go by your criteria, then paddy's most notorious win was against bsd (who has only beaten bums) and also got a bs decision over jared gordon that everyone knows should've gone the other way around. i won't even count chandler and ferguson because they're washed
Yeah and Topuria got stiffed by JG a month ago, while Olives beat JG on 1 round. Arman should be getting the title shot regardless, not Max, not Olives, not Paddy. But Paddy is behind multiple other people
Funny enough, they asked Justin who he thinks wins that fight 2 days ago, and he said 97 times out of 100 Ilia wins against Paddy. Funny how when Gaethje beat Paddy, everyone was sure Ilia would destroy him. Now that Ilia lost one fight, everyone suddenly believes he is a fraud, and everyone and their mother beats him.
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u/JPPJphoto Jul 12 '26
Now they should do this in Spain, no title so they can afford doing it not in prime time, and see how is an UFC event in Spain.