Henry Cejudo wants to see more from Sean O’Malley and Paddy Pimblett.
Pimblett is coming off a first-round submission win over Kazula Vargas in their lightweight bout earlier this month at UFC London.
He went 2-0 in the UFC as a result and continued to showcase why he was a future star in the making given the overall reception that he received.
Another future star — or possibly current star — is bantamweight O’Malley who is a fan favorite and currently 7-1 in the UFC.
But despite their star power, many in the combat sports world remain unconvinced by their ability to reach the top.
Part of that is because they have yet to truly face top tier opposition, and don’t plan to either until they’re paid handsomely to do so.
Cejudo certainly believes they are both talented, but would like to see them prove themselves before he can really start to credit them. He also feels they would be the perfect fighter if they shared some of their qualities.
“If you want my honest opinion, they both still have to prove themselves if you want me to credit them,” Cejudo said in a recent podcast (via MMA News). “I think Sean’s got more talent. But I think Paddy, Paddy the pimple face, has more grit.
“I think if they both had a little mixture of each other, that would be the perfect combination. Because Sean needs more grit, he needs more of the ability to embrace pain. Paddy needs more technique. (He’s) super-wide with his punches. He’s kinda like a little jungle boy out there fighting.”
Henry Cejudo: They’re Just ‘Entertainers’
Cejudo doesn’t deny the popularity of both O’Malley and Pimblett.
However, “Triple C” is looking past popularity and being entertaining — he wants to know if O’Malley and Pimblett can really fight when they’re up against the best fighters in the world.
“They’re good. When you talk about stars, you just talk about popularity,” Cejudo explained. “Me, as a fighter, bro, I’m looking at every angle man. Yeah, you can entertain, but can you really fight? Can you go up against the best in the world? Can you prove me wrong and fight where I really think you’re gonna get beat up?
“When I see that, that’s when you really own the Triple C respect. As of right now, they’re just entertainers.”
Pimblett is not ranked, so he may not see him fight an elite level fighter for a while. However, O’Malley is in the top 15 of the bantamweight rankings as of now.
That means we could very soon see if “Sugar” is capable of proving Cejudo wrong.
