Paddy Pimblett Pitches a TUF Season Opposite Ilia Topuria

Paddy Pimblett has a rescue plan for The Ultimate Fighter, and it involves spending six weeks in a house with the man he's feuded with for years. The Liverpudlian pitched a coaching season opposite Ilia Topuria, capped by a lightweight fight between the two, arguing the pairing could drag the reality show's ratings back to a place it hasn't seen in over a decade.

That's a tall order. TUF just closed out its 34th season, a milestone most fans missed entirely, and Pimblett knows it. His benchmark is TUF 10 — the Rampage Jackson vs. Rashad Evans season that also featured Kimbo Slice — which remains the high-water mark for the franchise. Pimblett says he and Topuria would restore those kinds of numbers, in part because, unlike recent casts, both coaches are actual active fighters.

Why the Timing Finally Works

For years the matchup was a scheduling problem. Topuria was busy cleaning out featherweight; Pimblett was still climbing the 155-pound ladder. That changed when Topuria moved up, won the vacant lightweight belt against Charles Oliveira, then lost it to Justin Gaethje by fourth-round knockout. Topuria now sits at 17-1 (7 KO, 8 SUB) and ranks #1 at lightweight.

Pimblett's own stock is up too. He bounced back from his first UFC loss by submitting Benoit Saint Denis in just 52 seconds at UFC 329 — the kind of statement finish that makes a title-adjacent fight easy to sell. Both men are now parked in the same division with nowhere left to dodge each other.

The Sales Pitch

True to form, Pimblett leaned into the psychological angle. He said he'd have Topuria's head "in the shed" for six weeks, keeping him awkward and off-balance the entire time. He also noted that Renato Moicano once floated coaching against him a couple of years back, which Pimblett admitted would've been decent television in its own right.

Whether the UFC bites is another matter. Dana White's Contender Series and the sheer volume of events have hollowed out TUF's role as the promotion's talent pipeline, and reviving it takes more than two guys who dislike each other. Still, if the booking's going to happen anyway, Pimblett's logic holds: give fans a genuine grudge between two ranked lightweights and the eyeballs tend to follow.