It’s already well established that Paddy Pimblett wants to fight his rival Ilia Topuria, but he’s now added extra spice to the match-up by suggesting that they also have then coach on The Ultimate Fighter first.

“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,” said Pimblett told Kolos MMA.

“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 McGregor beat Aldo.”

“It would be a brilliant press conference as I said,” Pimblett added. “The Ultimate Fighter would be a very entertaining six weeks to say the least if it was me and him.”

The two stars have a long-running feud that even briefly broke out into a physical skirmish when they crossed each other paths at a fighter’s hotel in London back in 2022.

Both fighters have continued to show an interest in fighting each other in the years since, and with Topuria now returning to training after losing his title to Justin Gaethje back in July, the time could now be right for it to happen.

However, while Dana White acknowledged last month that Pimblett is definitely a serious option, he’s also not ruled out the possibility of Topuria heading into a title rematch with Gaethje.

“Both (Gaethje and Pimblett) sound good to me,” White said on The Jim Rome Show. “They’re both great. We don’t lose with either one of those fights. They’re both great fights. I don’t know. Listen, anything I say on this show, there’s going to be 100 of these goofy Instagram guys like, ‘Dana White just announced Paddy Pimblett.’ They’re both great. We don’t have anything set. … I don’t really have the answer to that question (of who Topuria is fighting). Obviously the rematch with Gaethje is incredible. And a Paddy Pimblett fight is amazing. As bad as those two hate each other.”