Chael Sonnen has not taken kindly to UFC lightweight Paddy Pimblett accusing him of ‘clickbait.’
The Brit was strongly rumoured to be fighting Donald Cerrone but ‘the Baddy’ appeared on Michael Bisping’s podcast where he denied the fight was happening and accused Sonnen of stirring the pot for clicks.
In response, Sonnen made a video on his YouTube channel and said,
“Is Paddy secretly one stupid son of a bi**h? Paddy woke up and took a handful of stupid pills and goes on Michael Bisping’s show. On Michael’s show, Paddy accuses me of using his name for clickbait… Clickbait is something that is done by some scumbag…I don’t do it, I would never do it and I’m also irritated that Paddy thinks his name is big enough that Chael Sonnen would clickbait him. That might sound arrogant but that’s the truth. It pissed me off,’ Sonnen continued.
Pimblett has quickly become a star in the UFC despite only making his Octagon debut in September. Despite being linked to fighting Cerrone, the Liverpudlian has another opponent in mind.
“Because he mentioned me in his post-fight interview and he beat my former teammate, I would like to fight Jared Gordon,” Pimblett told Bisping.
Sonnen, meanwhile is dumfounded that Pimblett would not want to fight Cowboy. ‘The American Gangster’ also explained how the idea of that particular match-up came about.
‘Three weeks ago, I was sitting with Cerrone…As I’m having this conversation, Cowboy’s texting Sean Shelby saying does Paddy have an opponent. I asked him, ‘Can I talk about this? He said, ‘Yes.’ So that’s what we did,’ said Sonnen.
‘Why the hell aren’t you fighting Cowboy Cerrone?’ Sonnen continued. ‘I wasn’t sitting there texting Shelby. Cowboy was. Cowboy said he wanted the fight. I was sitting there when Cowboy asked him and all of a sudden you’re blaming me for clickbait. I’m blaming it on you for turning down Cowboy,’ added the Oregon native.
Sonnen appeared incredulous at the accusations from the former Cage Warriors champion. He then offered Pimblett an option of never saying his name again. Pimlett’s was one of the most-talked about UFC debuts in recent years. Sonnen has almost a million followers on his YouTube channel and clearly feels that he was doing his counterpart a service by linking him to a big fight.
He also pointed out that a clash with Cowboy is bigger on paper than fighting Gordon, and suggested that ‘the younger guy’ usually comes out on top in veteran vs prospect match-ups.
Was Pimblett right to accuse Sonnen of clickbaiting?