Ilia Topuria beats Paddy Pimblett's social media following within three years of 'The Baddy' claiming he's the more popular fighter

Newly crowned UFC featherweight champion Ilia Topuria not only beat Alexander Volkanovski in the UFC 298 main event but also overtook rival Paddy Pimblett on social media.

Giorgio Kokiashvili, an MMA reporter with a focus on Georgian fighters, highlighted a post from Pimblett from March 31, 2021, where the English fighter boasted of having a higher follower count than Topuria on Instagram:

"I have more followers [than] him on IG and I haven’t even had a UFC fight yet 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣levels to this sh*t mate [no] one knows who this dude is but everyone will know who I am 😘❤️😎"

Pimblett made his UFC debut later that year in September.

Check out Pimblett's post below:

Kokiashvili quoted the post and stated that Topuria now has 3.1 million followers on Instagram compared to Pimblett's 2.8 million:

"That one as well 😁 Fast forward three years, Ilia has 3.1m followers and Paddy got 2.8m 😁"

Check out his post below:

According to Social Blade's statistics, Topuria's follower count has shot up over the weekend. Just before fight night, 'El Matador' gained 112,742 followers and after his incredible knockout of Volkanovski, 548,726 more fans followed the UFC's newest champion.

Check out the comparison of Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett's respective follower counts and the Social Blade statistics below:

Pimblett and Topuria's respective follower counts and Topuria's recent increase. [via Instagram and Social Blade]

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Ilia Topuria calls out Conor McGregor after UFC 298 win, 'The Notorious' responds

After his crowning win, Ilia Topuria addressed the crowd and implored them to believe in themselves to achieve greater things.

His own sights are set on a mega fight against former UFC double champion and the biggest star in the sport, Conor McGregor. 'The Notorious' has been inactive for close to three years and has not competed since back-to-back losses against Dustin Poirier in 2021.

With the UFC set to make its debut in Spain, Topuria's home country, this year, the featherweight champion wants to take on the biggest name possible. He said in his octagon interview:

"And Conor McGregor, if you still have some b*lls, I will be waiting for you in Spain."

McGregor took to Instagram and commented on a post of Topuria's quote:

"I have huge b*lls, I've 4 kids."

Check out Conor McGregor's comment in the screenshot below on X: