‘I’ll punish him for saying Georgians deserve to die’: Guram Kutateladze declares war on UFC newcomer Pimblett

Georgian-born Swedish UFC lightweight Guram Kutateladze says he wants to punish promotional newcomer Paddy Pimblett for “insulting” remarks on social media he insists imply Georgians “deserved to die”.

Tbilisi-born Kutateladze has offered to humble Liverpool’s Pimblett, the former Cage Warriors featherweight champ who recently penned a deal with the UFC, after he tweeted “how stupid are these Georgians. No wonder the Russians terrorize their lives”.

Kutateladze, himself a recent UFC debutante when he narrowly outpointed Mateusz Gamrot in October, interpreted the 26-year-old’s tweets to be referring to the Russo-Georgian conflict of 2008 and that Pimblett was implying his countrymen “deserved to die”.

“He answered the way he did – very insulting for me – then I just answered back. So I told him to stay humble until he’s forced to become humble,” Kutateladze, now fighting out of the Swedish capital of Stockholm, told MMA Junkie.

“He talked about Georgia, he talked about my people, my country, about war between Russia and Georgia – that Georgia deserves what happened,” he added.

Pimblett, who will be campaigning in the 155lbs division most recently ruled by Khabib Nurmagomedov when in the octagon, later deleted his tweets but Georgian Viking Kutateladze says the damage had already been done, insisting it “is not a joke” and vowing to punish ‘Paddy the Baddy’ for his words.

“After he realized that the Georgian people started pressuring him like, ‘Hey, now you’re talking that it’s OK, that we deserve to die’ – this is not a joke. You don’t joke about some things. There are limits to everything. You have to respect the country, religion, family and stuff like that,” Kutateladze said. 

“He deleted his tweets and he kind of apologized, but you have to take responsibility for what you say. By deleting your tweets, it doesn’t mean you never said it. The words you say, they don’t disappear. I hope I meet him one day in the octagon, and I can punish this person for everything he said and for his attitude.”

Fellow Georgian UFC fighter Liana Jojua, who is currently 1-2 in the promotion, also had her say, dramatically claiming that her “innocent grandparents” were killed during the war and that she was “ashamed” Pimblett was representative of mixed martial arts.

“My grandparents just like a lot of other innocent people were killed during the war. I feel ashamed that this kind of people represent our sport,” she tweeted.

“It’s very easy to tweet something stupid and then delete it the moment your ass gets burned, however, it’s takes real courage to publicly apologise to the people you have offended just because you wanted to get under somebody’s skin,” she added.

The beef between Kutateladze and Pimblett stemmed from the former begging for a fight with the 16-3 fighter to welcome him to the UFC, to which Pimblett reacted dismissively and called Kutateladze “ugly” and a “mushroom”.

Despite currently recovering from knee surgery, Kutateladze says he hasn’t forgotten about the Scouser, but has a different opponent lined up for the summer.

“I didn’t move on from Paddy,” Kutateladze said, MMA Junkie reported. “I got an offer from the UFC for my next opponent, but right now I can’t say the name.”