Dana White knows who he wants Paddy Pimblett to fight, and it’s the name that has hung over Pimblett’s career for a while now. According to Bleacher Report, as relayed by Championship Rounds on X early Saturday, White built out a card of his dream fights, and Pimblett is paired with Ilia Topuria. The French outlet La Sueur ran the story the same morning under a headline saying White had revealed his plans for Pimblett.
The rest of White’s fantasy lineup is just as loud. He listed Josh Hokit vs. Alex Pereira, Petr Yan vs. Sean O’Malley and Tom Aspinall vs. Jon Jones. These are dream fights, and the report attached no dates, venues or contracts to any of them. Some of them also carry built-in complications. Hokit, 10-0, was set to challenge Ciryl Gane for the undisputed heavyweight title Saturday night at UFC 334 in Madison Square Garden, and Gane got that title shot by stopping Pereira for the interim belt.
The Topuria pairing makes the most sense of the bunch. Topuria, 29, was 17-0 with a 9-0 UFC run that included consecutive knockouts of Alexander Volkanovski, Max Holloway and Charles Oliveira. Then Justin Gaethje upset him in the main event of UFC Freedom 250 on the White House South Lawn, in what was supposed to be Topuria’s first lightweight title defense. Sports Illustrated’s FanNation reported this week that Topuria is preparing for a return in 2027, that his hope for an immediate Gaethje rematch has been shut down, and that there is real interest in a grudge match with Pimblett, whom the outlet called the top-ranked contender at 155 pounds.
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Topuria has not exactly been in a quiet mood. On Wednesday he tore into Usman Nurmagomedov on X after Merab Dvalishvili posted video of himself and a friend receiving medical attention following an alleged attack in Abu Dhabi ahead of a Real American Freestyle event. “A bunch of absolute cowards,” Topuria wrote, in a post that also said Nurmagomedov had reportedly been detained.
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Pimblett, meanwhile, was nowhere near Madison Square Garden. He turned up cageside at PFL Dubai on Saturday alongside Shannon Courtenay, Dakota Ditcheva and Costello van Steenis, and the PFL’s own account posted a clip of him and Ditcheva on their feet enjoying the fights. Earlier in the week, Athlon reported that Pimblett and Joe Rogan clashed over a potential ban on oblique kicks in the UFC, so he has kept himself in the conversation without throwing a punch.
The fight White wants is the right one, and Gaethje’s win might have made it better. With the belt off the table, Topuria vs. Pimblett becomes a straight fight between a former champion trying to prove the White House loss was a blip and a contender trying to prove he belongs in the same sentence. That’s a cleaner sell than a title fight where half the audience thinks the challenger was handed the shot. The catch is the word “dream.” White put it on a list next to Aspinall vs. Jones, and anyone who has followed that saga knows how far a list can sit from a signed bout agreement. Until a date shows up, the only firm marker is Topuria’s 2027 return, and Pimblett is the most obvious name waiting for him.
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