Britain's Paddy Pimblett is "one fight away" from securing a title shot, says former featherweight champion Ilia Topuria.
Pimblett is eighth in the UFC's lightweight rankings after securing the biggest win of his career with a dominant win over Michael Chandler in April.
Last month 30-year-old Pimblett said he was targeting a fight next against Topuria or Justin Gaethje in Abu Dhabi in October.
Topuria, who faces Brazil's Charles Oliveira for the lightweight belt at UFC 317 in Las Vegas on Saturday, is open to fighting Pimblett if he beats someone else first.
"I see that fight happening. He has to be ready because he doesn't make those kind of decisions. It's me who decides when, where and against who," Topuria told BBC Sport.
"The only thing I can tell him is 'be ready'. Whenever you get the call you show up, you do your thing, you get your money, you go back home.
"He's one fight away from the title shot. So if he gets that win of course we are going to have that fight and I'm gonna whoop his ass."
Topuria has history with Pimblett after the pair clashed at a hotel before UFC London in 2022.
With the pair in different weight divisions, it looked like a fight may never materialise, but that changed when Topuria vacated his featherweight title this year to move up to lightweight.
