Dana White is interested in Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria as opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter. He just won’t book it yet. Asked about the idea at the UFC 332 post-fight press conference, White said “I love the idea of that” before hedging that fights, title fights and timing would decide how it plays out. He ended with “that would definitely be a good one,” which in Dana-speak lands somewhere between a maybe and a wink.
The pitch came from Pimblett himself. Heading into UFC 332, he told Kolos MMA that a TUF season against Topuria would let him rattle the Spaniard for six weeks before they ever shared a cage. His exact words: “I’d get under his skin so much that when we come into the fight, I’d beat him just as fast as (Conor) McGregor beat (Jose) Aldo.” For the record, that’s a 13-second promise. I’ve lost money on smaller ones.
The history is real. The two had an altercation at a London hotel in 2022 and traded heat at the UFC 282 press conference. They were booked to fight at UFC 324 in January, but Topuria withdrew while dealing with personal issues. Pimblett took Justin Gaethje instead and lost the interim lightweight title fight. Gaethje then met Topuria in a unification bout at UFC Freedom 250 in June and pulled off one of the biggest upsets in UFC history, with Topuria retiring on his stool after the fourth round. Topuria never defended the lightweight belt before losing it.
Topuria, the former two-division champion, is back in training now. Gaethje hasn’t fought since June and is undecided about retiring, and Arman Tsarukyan is the likely opponent if he does return. That leaves Pimblett and Topuria both free, which is the whole appeal.
The UFC just wrapped Season 34 of TUF with retired fighters Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping coaching. The promotion has leaned on retired names lately, though it has used active fighters before. The problem is the production schedule. Filming runs about six weeks, post-production takes another four to five months, and the season then airs weekly for roughly three months. Add it up and Yahoo Sports estimated fans could wait more than 10 months for the fight.
And other people want Topuria first. Renato Moicano volunteered this week to be his return opponent, arguing that Topuria needs an easy fight right now. He also said “I think his confidence is broken,” which is a strange way to pitch yourself as the easy fight, but Moicano has never been shy.
My take: this fight doesn’t need a reality show. It needed January, and it got a withdrawal instead. Topuria is coming off a stoppage loss where he quit on the stool, and parking him on a TV set for six weeks before a fight nearly a year away is exactly the long-layoff setup I hate to back at a short price. If the UFC wants Pimblett vs. Topuria, book it for the spring and let the London hotel footage do the promo work. If they go the TUF route, I’ll happily take whoever ends up the underdog, because 10 months of Paddy talking in someone’s ear is a variable no oddsmaker can price.
