Paddy Pimblett improves to 2-0 inside the octagon at UFC London

The Ultimate Fighting Championship returns to us today, March 19, 2022, for UFC Fight Night 204, going down live from the O2 Arena in London, England.

Headlining the event is a heavyweight clash between former M-1 & Bellator champion Alexander Volkov (No. 6) and rising contender Tom Aspinall (No. 11).

Co-headlining the event is Dan Hooker’s return to the featherweight division, as he takes on No. 7 ranked Arnold Allen.

Our feature fight of the night came in the lightweight division between Cage Warriors champ-champ Paddy Pimblett, who performs in his sophomore effort tonight against Rodrigo Vargas.

Continue reading to see how this epic lightweight contest went down:

Official Result: Paddy Pimblett def. Rodrigo Vargas via submission (rear naked choke) at 3:49 of round one

Vargas comes straight at Pimblett once the bout starts, swinging heavily and bullying him down to the mat. He then remains on top while keeping Pimblett immobile, his strength advantage is very evident right now.

Pimblett is able to make his way back up however but is still being controlled along the cage.

Next comes a beautiful hip toss by Pimblett, and he immediately proceeds to take the back. After some adjusting, he’s able to sink in a rear naked choke for a late first round finish.

Paddy Pimblett earns the first round submission win over Kazula Vargas at #UFCLondon pic.twitter.com/HMdyM1QHth

— MMA mania (@mmamania) March 19, 2022

Paddy Pimblett is now 18-3 as a professional, and he’s now 2-0 inside the octagon with two first round finishes.

Ilia Topuria just finished Jai Herbert tonight after a tough start, and Pimblett does the same. Though he lost merely the entire fight, he’s able to capitalize and show us why he’s one of the brightest young prospects in the sport.

Topuria called Pimblett out after his win, as they had a scuffle behind the scenes earlier this week. Who doesn’t want to see that matchup between two dangerous finishers?

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Brady Ordway

I became a fan of combat sports when I was 12 years old. I was scrolling through the channels and landed upon Versus, where WEC was televised. Urijah Faber fought Jens Pulver for the second time that night. That's the first fight I ever saw, and I was immediately hooked. So eventually, I began covering the sport in the fourth quarter of 2018, and have since started writing about animals as well. If you'd like to see those pieces, be sure to check out learnaboutnature.com!

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