Dana White wants Paddy Pimblett in the biggest fight of his UFC career, and he wants it next.
The Sun reported Wednesday that the UFC CEO has signed off on a high-stakes booking for Pimblett’s next Octagon appearance, with a potential grudge match on the horizon. The paper’s headline has White giving the idea his thumbs up. What the headline doesn’t carry is an opponent, a date or an event. That’s a lot of green light with no road attached.
The name that’s been floating around Pimblett all week is Ilia Topuria. Over the weekend, White was asked about putting the two of them on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter as opposing coaches. A clip shared by Championship Rounds captured his answer.
View post on X
“I love the idea of that, but a lot of things determine how things play out,” White said. He added that the same goes for certain fights and title fights. “We’ll see how the timing plays out.”
That’s the most Dana answer possible. He likes it. He also kept the door open for a title fight getting in the way, and he gave nobody a timeline.
Pimblett, as usual, didn’t need to be asked twice. On Monday he said he was down to do the show opposite Topuria, and he laid out his plan for six weeks of filming in a clip also posted by Championship Rounds.
View post on X
“I’d have his head in the shed for six weeks. He wouldn’t know where to look, what to say. I’d have him feeling awkward constantly,” Pimblett said. “Me and Ilia would bring the ratings back to The Ultimate Fighter.”
MMA Fighting picked up the comments in its Wednesday Morning Report and ran a fan poll on X Tuesday asking how interested people would be in a Topuria vs. Pimblett coaching season. The idea moved fast enough that somebody made an AI-generated mock TUF clip of the two of them, which the X account @DovySimuMMA shared with a crack about how good AI slop is getting.
To be clear about what’s confirmed: nothing. There’s no announced fight, no announced TUF season and no named opponent in The Sun’s headline. The only on-the-record words from White in the sources are the TUF comments above, and he hedged those. Whether the grudge match The Sun is pointing at is Topuria, and whether it comes before or after a reality show, are questions White hasn’t answered publicly.
View post on X
My take: book it and stop teasing it. Pimblett answers every question straight and Topuria will never turn down a chance to talk, which is exactly the pairing a tired TUF format needs. But White’s line about title fights and timing is the tell. If a belt gets involved, the coaching gig probably waits, and the UFC should just tell us which one comes first instead of letting a fake AI trailer do the promoting.
