When Israel Adesanya criticized the level of Paddy Pimblett's UFC opponents

Prior to Paddy Pimblett's victory over Rodrigo Vargas at UFC London, the quality of his opposition was criticized by Israel Adesanya.

Pimblett faced Luigi Vendramini in his UFC debut and was given Rodrigo Vargas in his first UFC London clash.

'The Baddy' won the bouts easily. Interestingly, neither of Pimblett's first two opponents are fighting under the UFC banner anymore. Before Paddy Pimblett took on Vargas, 'The Last Stylebender' had this to say about the Scouser's level of opponents:

"He’s fighting a motherf***** that’s 1-2 [in the UFC]. He’s getting fed a bum."

Israel Adesanya then continued to say:

"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."

Watch Adesanya speak about Pimblett's opponents here:

Since beating Luigi Vendramini and Rodrigo Vargas, Paddy Pimblett has gone on to fight Jordan Leavitt. 'The Monkey King' proved to be slightly more difficult, but was still an unranked opponent in the UFC.

It's clear that Israel Adesanya won't be completely impressed with Pimblett until he fights a highly-ranked opponent. 'The Baddy' currently doesn't have a fight booked. Hopefully, we will see the Englishman take on a bigger challenge in his next fight.

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Who did Israel Adesanya fight in his first two UFC outings?

Israel Adesanya openly criticized Paddy Pimblett's first two opponents since joining the UFC. So, let's take a look at the Nigerian's opening bouts in the organization.

In Adesanya's UFC debut, 'The Last Stylebender' took on Rob Wilkinson. His opponent was 11-1 as a professional fighter at the time, but had only fought once in the UFC before facing the future champion.

Wilkinson lost in his debut against Siyar Bahadurzada, so his record was 0-1 in the UFC before facing Adesanya. After losing to Adesanya, 'Razor' was cut from the UFC.

In his second UFC bout, Israel Adesanya was handed a much tougher opponent. Adesanya went on to face Marvin Vettori at UFC on FOX 29: Poirier vs. Gaethje in 2018.

The Italian had two wins, one loss and one draw in UFC before facing 'The Last Stylebender' but proved to be a tough test for the Nigerian. Adesanya managed to get the better of 'The Italian Dream', but only won via split decision.