Paddy Pimblett has questions about the gameplan employed by Charles Oliveira in his UFC 317 lightweight title defeat by Ilia Topuria.

The Brazilian submission expert, a former lightweight champion in his own right, was finished by Topuria midway through the first frame at last weekend’s fight card in Las Vegas, as the Georgian-Spaniard became the latest member of the UFC’s two-division champion club after he previously held and relinquished the organisation’s featherweight title.

Following a run of 11-straight wins between the summer of 2018 and 2022, Oliveira has now gone 2-3 in his past five — losing by submission to Islam Makhachev, by decision to Arman Tsarukyan and now to Topuria by knockout.

And given that he was well aware of Topuria’s strengths in the cage, Paddy Pimblett — a longtime foe of Topuria’s — has some stern questions for Oliveira’s strategy heading into the contest.

“I thought if Charles would get him to the later rounds, it might have been a bit different,” Pimblett told the Verse Us podcast, as noted by MMA Fighting.

“I really like Charles but what the f*ck was that game plan, lad? Just stand in front of him and get punched in the face.

“I’d love to know what their game plan was. Because that was half embarrassing. Where did the cut come from? Topuria ended up on top of him, I was like ‘Oliveira’s cut.’ Obviously that would have been in his eye a little bit. Easier to get it but still. What are you doing just standing in the middle and swinging punches with him when he’s a top class boxer and he’s got power. It blew my mind how stupid he could be after that was his 47th pro fight, and he was going in there like an amateur.”

Pimblett has been strongly linked to a possible bout with new 155-pound champion Topuria given their rivalry which started following a fracas at a fighter hotel in London several years ago ahead of a UFC show in the UK — and if he does get his shot, the Liverpool man says he would have a different strategy entirely.

“I’ve never had a fight like that,” Pimblett said. “I want to have a war with someone but I’ve never had one. Never took a sustained amount of damage in my life. He wouldn’t knock me out. He could hit me with his best punch and I’d laugh in his face.”