When Ilia Topuria announced his retirement at UFC Freedom 250, he left behind more than just a legacy in the sport. He also left behind a corner stool that quickly became one of the most coveted collectibles in recent memory.
For weeks, the assumption circulating online was that Paddy Pimblett had scooped up the prized red stool. As it turns out, the real buyer is someone else entirely, and she has receipts to prove it.
A woman named Jessica stepped forward in a social media video to set the record straight, showing a tracking notification through the Shop app and walking her audience through the entire paper trail.
“I am Jessica. I am actually the one that purchased the Ilia red stool from Freedom 250,” she said, holding up her phone to display the shipping confirmation. “I see collectibles email that it’s been shipped.”
With the camera fixed on her screen, Jessica navigated through the Shop app to reveal a purchase receipt from UFC Freedom 250 for the corner stool used at the event.
“This is the UFC website showing it as well through Shopify.com or whatever of the purchase without scrolling all the way down and showing you my personal info,” she explained.
The most telling part of the video, however, was not the receipt itself. It was Jessica’s explanation of why she made the purchase in the first place.
“I bought it, not Paddy, not anybody else, and I kind of purchased it on purpose so that Paddy and nobody else could actually buy it and use it against them, but here we are,” she said.
The stool, which sold for $14,000, had been available through UFC’s official collectibles channel following Freedom 250, where Topuria competed for the last time before stepping away from the sport.
The red corner stool became tied to that farewell moment, and Jessica made it her deliberate mission to ensure it did not end up as a prop for anyone looking to needle the retired champion.
