Israel Adesanya has weighed in on Paddy Pimblett’s upcoming fight ahead of UFC London.
It will Pimblett vs Rodrigo Vargas in a lightweight matchup on Saturday, March 19th at the 02 Arena in London.
Paddy Pimblett (17-3 MMA) will meet Rodrigo Vargas (12-4 MMA) in the promotions first card in the U.K. in over two years.
It was ‘The Baddy’ speaking about Adesanya’s fighting skills, who said kind things but then went on to add he wasn’t a fan of “the mad stupid dances he does when he comes out.”
Adesanya, the UFC middleweight champion, discussed Paddy ‘The Baddy’ Pimblett on his YouTube channel, saying that while he respects the fighters confidence, he believes his skills don’t match up with his trash talk saying:
“He should do that. I dare him to do a f***ing whole entrance on the biggest fight of his life. I’m not talking this fight — this ain’t the biggest fight of his life. He’s fighting a motherf***er that’s 1-2 in the UFC. He’s getting fed a bum. I dare him to try something like that, and then fight, and do what I did.”
Israel Adesanya continued (h/t MMAFighting):
“He jumped in the UFC, talked that s**t, and he walked that s**t, too. I like what he’s doing. I like the haircut, and I like how he’s owning everything and just telling it like it is. He’s speaking his truth. They’re building him up. This is the thing: when I got to the UFC, when I jumped in, I was ready to fight the most dangerous people of the division, and they threw me right in there against a grappler who was going to grapple me — at least, that’s what he tried to do. Second fight, I’m fighting block head Marvin Vettori, third fight I fight a top-ranked guy, top-10, f**k*, third fight.
Look, you can be a hype train but there’s levels. I knew I could jump in the deep end and swim with the sharks right away. I didn’t have the opportunity, like some of the these guys — even Jon Jones early on was fighting, not scrubs, but they push you, and once they realize who you are, ‘Oh, OK, let’s push him more.’ Anyway, that’s no shade by the way, that’s just me stating it as it is for myself. I didn’t get to fight a guy who was 1-2.”
Sharing advice, Israel Adesanya finished by saying:
“That kind of confidence shakes a lot of dudes, even a lot of veterans. When they’re under the lights, when a guy is creative like Pimblett, or like myself — like Brunson at MSG. I created all of that. He was like, ‘Oh f**k, s**t,’ and he got shook.
So he can shake a lot of veterans with that confidence, but he’s a bit green so he needs to work on his skills, especially his striking.”
Do you agree with Israel Adesanya that the UFC is feeding Paddy Pimblett a bum? Will you be watching this weekend & who do you think the victor will be, Pimblett or Vargas?