Paddy Pimblett wants Ilia Topuria fight on The Ultimate Fighter

Pimblett pitches TUF season with former UFC champion

Paddy Pimblett wants Ilia Topuria fight on The Ultimate Fighter

UFC lightweight stars Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria could revive The Ultimate Fighter in 2027.

Paddy Pimblett got back on the winning track earlier this year with a strong submission victory over Benoît Saint Denis. Now he could face Ilia Topuria in a title eliminator bout after Topuria announced his return.

Ilia Topuria took a little while to recover from his last loss, but is still considered one of the favorites for the title. The current titleholder, Justin Gaethje, recently sparked rumors that he might relinquish the title and even retire. That would mean a new titleholder would have to be crowned quickly, and that’s exactly where the matchup between Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett could come into play, not for the title itself, but for the right to challenge for it, since Arman Tsarukyan is considered the third-strongest contender. In a recent interview with Kolos MMA, Paddy Pimblett suggested reigniting his long-standing feud with Ilia Topuria in the next season of TUF.

“I have no fight booked at the minute but I would love to fight Ilia Topuria. I'll beat him that bad that I’d send him back down to featherweight. I think me and Ilia Topuria would be a brilliant season of The Ultimate Fighter because 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. It would be a brilliant press conference as I said. The Ultimate Fighter would be a very entertaining six weeks to say the least if it was me and him”

he said.

Dana White has also said on multiple occasions that this matchup would make perfect sense and would be big enough to book for a UFC event. Depending on how things play out for Justin Gaethje, the two could actually face off soon, since it’s already the most logical matchup. What do you think?

I think this matchup will definitely happen. It makes perfect sense for both of them from a competitive standpoint, and personally, it’s a matchup that would certainly interest both of them. I’m curious to see when we’ll hear more about this matchup.