Adam ‘The Bomb’ Piccolotti is set to go off at Bellator 220 this weekend in San Jose. When that happens, it will be against the biggest opponent of his career: Benson Henderson.
Adam Piccolotti is facing Benson Henderson in a key lightweight battle this weekend at Bellator 220. The former UFC lightweight champion has finally strung two wins together under the Bellator banner, but Piccolotti is as game as they come — and excited to be facing off with a legend.
“It is the biggest fight of my career, especially when we’re speaking about opponents,” Piccolotti told Cageside Press ahead of this weekend’s main card showdown. “But at the same time, it is a fight, you know. I think every fight is the biggest fight of my career. So this is the next fight, which is the biggest fight of my career.”
This next, biggest fight is the culmination of everything Adam Piccolotti has done in mixed martial arts to date, win or lose. “I’ve always tried to be the guy who learned from his wins,” he told us. “I heard GSP say that way back when. It’s something that really stuck with me, so learning from my wins is something I really take seriously.”
The wins came fast and furious early on, until stumbles against Goiti Yamauchi and Caveman Rickels. Since then, however, ‘The Bomb’ has put together back-to-back wins. “Those losses though, they definitely provided some giant insight into some things that I was maybe neglecting, some mental aspects of the same that I wasn’t working on strongly.” He certainly learned from those experiences.
In the end, all of his experience in the cage, win or lose, has helped Piccolotti become the fighter he is today. Not just the losses, but the wins as well, especially given that he opened his career on a nine fight win streak. “I had to make sure that I wasn’t coasting through those and not getting better.”
“There’s some underlying pressure that comes with being undefeated,” he later admitted. “Especially when it started getting higher and higher. That started becoming the sticking point of my name.”
“Whether I like to admit it or not, that probably had some sort of effect on me,” Piccolotti concluded.
Now, it’s on to the fight with ‘Smooth’ Benson Henderson. Despite the legendary status of the ex-UFC champ, Piccolotti said that “you’ve always got to prepare for every fight with intensity, with dedication, with all those things that turn you into a good competitor. This fight’s no different in that respect.”
“There’s always strategy with each opponent. Benson’s no different,” he added. “It’s not that I’m preparing for Benson the Legend. I’m preparing for Benson the southpaw with good point fighting, striking, with good jiu-jitsu and takedowns.”
In other words, Piccolotti is prepping for Benson the fighter, not Benson the name.
Piccolotti has been doing a lot of work with Jon Fitch ahead of Bellator 220 — and Fitch, of course, is in the main event Saturday night. For Piccolotti’s prediction on that fight, check out our Bellator Fighters Predict MacDonald vs. Fitch piece. But rest assured, Fitch is a fighter Piccolotti was watching coming up as a young fighter.
Meanwhile, on his own fight, Piccolotti feels that a win over Benson Henderson puts himself “right there as well.”
“I want to fight the best names there are. I want to fight for that title, and that’s basically it,” he said.
The title, however, is tied up at the moment, as featherweight champion Patricio Pitbull moves up in weight to take on arch-nemesis Michael Chandler. “We’ll see how it goes for [Pitbull],” Piccolotti said of the pairing. “He’s a very technical striker, he’s really good at what he does.” But that having been said, Piccolotti added that “I think Chandler is really good at what he does though. In my personal view I think Chandler’s wrestling pressure is going to be a little bit too much for him. I think Chandler’s going to get it done.”
Tune in to Bellator 220 on April 27, live from the SAP Center in San Jose, CA to see if Piccolotti can get it done against Benson Henderson. The fight takes place on the main card, airing live on DAZN.
