UFC lightweight Jared Gordon agrees with some elements of Dana White‘s criticism of the third round of his loss to Paddy Pimblett.
Gordon lost to Pimblett via a unanimous decision (29-28 x 3) at UFC 282 last weekend. The judges’ scorecards have been criticized for days since fight night by fans and pundits who feel Gordon did more than enough to deserve the victory.
After UFC 282, White blasted Gordon’s third-round approach, in which he spent the majority of the round clinching Pimblett against the cage. While he controlled Pimblett as the fight came to a close, his offensive output lacked in the clinch exchanges.
Gordon’s boxing, particularly his left hook, found success over the first two rounds against Pimblett. Despite this, he opted to change levels against Pimblett over the final round.
Looking back on the fight, Gordon feels he could’ve approached the final minutes of the action differently in hindsight.
Jared Gordon Explains Why He Didn’t Do More Late At UFC 282
During a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Gordon hit back at White’s third-round criticism.
“I clearly controlled the third. Dana and people said, ‘you didn’t do anything in the third round’,” Gordon said. “Looking back at it, I still regret what I did in the third round. I agree with people I could’ve done more, but I still controlled the whole third round. If I didn’t do anything, he did absolutely nothing in the third round. He just laid there and was throwing shots behind my ear and around my head…how did I lose that round? I don’t know.”
In a now-viral clip, White appeared to give a nod of approval as the Gordon/Pimblett decision was read. This happened as the T-Mobile Arena crowd audibly disagreed with the result.
Gordon went on to explain why his activity level faltered over the final minutes of the fight.
“My ankle was banged up,” Gordon revealed. “I sprained my ankle really badly in the Grant Dawson fight, and I’ve been dealing with it since then. When I fought Leon Santos, my ankle wasn’t good until a few weeks before the fight…I was calf-kicking Paddy in the first two rounds, and I couldn’t even walk after. So, in the third round, it stiffened up on me.”
Gordon entered the Pimblett fight off of a win over Leonardo Santos at UFC 278. He’s won four of his last six fights overall since a loss to Charles Oliveira in Nov. 2019.
Gordon wants to run it back with Pimblett, potentially at the London card at UFC 286. If the Pimblett rematch comes to fruition, he’ll likely want to keep his foot on the gas as the action goes on.
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