Paddy Pimblett dismisses ‘haters’ for ‘robbery’ claims after controversial win at UFC 282

The Liverpudlian was a unanimous-decision winner over Jared Gordon on Saturday – to the surprise of the majority of fans, pundits and fighters

Paddy Pimblett has rejected claims that his victory over Jared Gordon was a ‘robbery’, dismissing his critics as ‘haters’ after UFC 282.

The Liverpudlian lightweight was a unanimous-decision winner over American Gordon in Las Vegas on Saturday – to the surprise of the majority of fans, pundits and fighters. Pimblett, 27, was outstruck for most of the first two rounds and outgrappled in the third and final round. All three judges scored the co-main event in Pimblett’s favour, however, with each scorecard reading 29-28.

In his post-fight interview, Pimblett dismissed suggestions by interviewer Joe Rogan that the fight had been close, and he doubled down on his belief after the bout.

“I’m bit annoyed at people saying they thought I lost,” Pimblett said. “I think that’s just because people hate me. I’m pretty annoyed to be honest, but I’m 4-0 in the UFC. Haters are going to hate, you’ve got to get on with it.

“It’s not as thought it was a split-decision victory, but I’ll be honest: I thought I won the first two [rounds], and I took the third round off. It’s my own stupid fault; you should never take a round off, thinking you’re two rounds up. It goes without saying.

“Nowadays fights get scored off damage, and I’ve got a cut lip – that’s it. I did more damage in every single round. His face is beat up, he’s got a busted nose, he had a little cut on his head, he had damage around his eyes.

“The control time... In the last round, yeah, he controlled me against the fence, but he didn’t do anything with it. I think I was landing the better knees and little short shots in those positions, when he had me pushed against the cage.”

“Paddy The Baddy”’s three previous UFC outings had seen the Liverpudlian win via stoppage. The 27-year-old knocked out Luigi Vendramini in 2021 before submitting Rodrigo Vargas and Jordan Leavitt this year – with the latter two wins coming at both 2022 editions of UFC London.

The MMA promotion returns to London’s O2 Arena in March, as the UK stages a UFC pay-per-view for the first time in six years.

No fights have yet been confirmed for UFC 286, and Pimblett has said he plans to go on holiday in January, meaning he would not have much time to complete a weight-cut for the London event; the Liverpudlian is known to put on a significant amount of weight between fights.