‘TUF 31’ will be a hard act to follow.
The latest season of the reality TV show, ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ featured UFC superstars Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler as opposing coaches. With only eight episodes aired so far, there’s already a campaign to coach the show’s next season by another UFC fighter: Paddy Pimblett.
Pimblett Would ‘Love’ To Do TUF Against Topuria
‘The Baddy’ has a lot of options on his plate regarding his next fight, but he’d interestingly entertain one that has ‘TUF’ to help promote it.
“I’m just waiting to see when I come back,” Pimblett said during a UFC London Q&A. “Obviously, (Matt) Frevola is a nice one, he called me out. But, I think about 12 people have called me out in the post-fight interview, to be honest. We’ll see what happens in the future. I’d love to do a season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ with Ilia Topuria. I reckon that would be hilarious.”
“That would be funny, wouldn’t it? I’d get under some people’s skin.”
Pimblett has yet to fight Topuria, but there’s been some very close calls between the two fighters outside of the Octagon. The beef all started prior to their matchups at UFC London last year, where Pimblett and Topuria would engage in an altercation at the UFC’s host hotel.
Then, they’d cross paths again and talk more smack at the UFC 282 press conference but security would make sure they wouldn’t throw hands again.
Things got heated between Ilia Topuria and Paddy Pimblett at the #UFC282 press conference pic.twitter.com/16DPJjtwTb
— Carlos Contreras Legaspi 🦁 (@CCLegaspi) December 9, 2022
Pimblett On Topuria’s Success
Since their encounters, Topuria has gone on to make the top 5 of the UFC Featherweight rankings with a dominating win over Josh Emmett. ‘El Matador’ is now closer than ever to a title fight with champion Alexander Volkanovski.
With all of that said, Pimblett still isn’t impressed by his rival.
“Performance of the Year? F*cking hell, lad,” Pimblett said of Topuria’s latest performance. “He couldn’t finish [Emmett] who’s going to retire soon. You’re messing, aren’t you? Josh Emmett is like 39, isn’t he? If you think that was a great performance, then yeah, but I could finish Josh Emmett in my sleep.”
While they’re definitely on separate paths now, being in different divisions, a ‘TUF’ season between Paddy Pimblett and Ilia Topuria would be something to see.
