Kazula Vargas didn’t feel outmatched in his recent setback.
The UFC lightweight suffered a March loss to rising star and former Cage Warriors champion Paddy Pimblett on the main card of UFC Fight Night 204 in London. He lost by rear-naked choke in the first round.
It was a defeat in which Vargas (12-5 MMA, 1-3 UFC) thought the result came down to something he didn’t do correctly, rather than just being inferior to Pimblett’s skill set and level.
“I think it was more of my mistake,” Vargas told MMA Junkie in Spanish. “I looked at the video a few times and I’ve been doing some introspection. I think the mistake was that I lost track of time. I wasn’t really sure if it had been two minutes or two minutes and a half. So when he hit the throw, that wasn’t an issue because I immediately pulled him into guard. But I lost track of time and I couldn’t hear my corner at all. So by not keeping track of time and thinking the judges were going to favor him, I didn’t want to lose that round.
“That pressure made me expose my back. I gave him my back. I stood up incorrectly. I was the one who made the mistake, and he knew how to take advantage of that. I knew he had a good back take and a good rear-naked choke. I tried defending it, but it was already locked in. It was me who gave him my back. That mistake cost me the fight.”
The fight was going in favor of the Mexican fighter until it wasn’t. He connected early and dropped Pimblett, then controlled him and landed ground-and-pound for a couple of minutes of the fight until Pimblett was able to get up, hit a throw and take Vargas’ back.
Vargas said he didn’t stick to his original game plan, but he felt out of danger engaging with Pimblett in the grappling department.
“To be honest, that wasn’t really the plan,” Vargas said. “The plan was to keep the fight standing. I knew that I was going to knock him down, but I didn’t expect it to be that quick. I didn’t even fully connect the hook – it wasn’t 100 percent. It almost grazed him. So I knocked him down, he looked for the takedown, and I sprawled. He then pulled guard, and I have good control and grappling from the top, so I felt comfortable. I never felt him strong in that aspect. I felt him going for under-hooks and butterflies, but I didn’t feel in danger.”
The fight against Pimblett was Varga’s final fight on his UFC contract. He hopes to re-sign with the UFC and return in August.
“This was my last fight on the contract,” Vargas said. “I don’t know what’s next, but I’m letting my manager take care of that. I don think that’s going to take very long. I should have an answer in its time. I’m training at a lower pace, but I’m still training. I’m in Las Vegas, but I think next week I should return to Mexico. The plan is to continue. That’s how it works: keep working, keep improving.
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