UFC commentator Laura Sanko takes a look at the decision win by Paddy Pimblett at UFC 282 and his immediate reaction to the scorecards.
The UFC 282 event that ended the year in terms of UFC PPV cards was filled with controversy. One bout that stood out was the co-main event between Paddy Pimblett and Jared Gordon.
The lightweight bout saw pretty evenly matched fighters going back and forth for 15 minutes. At the end of the fight, Pimblett walked away with a unanimous decision victory. However, many fans and fellow fighters did not see it that way.
Following the bout, the scorecards raised some eyebrows, and one judge was called into question. Pimblett immediately took offense to the criticisms of his fight and the accusations that it should have been scored for Gordon.
Now looking back at the way he behaved after the fight, UFC commentator Laura Sanko thinks he handled it all wrong.
Laura Sanko Thinks Paddy Pimblett Should Have Been More Humble In His Win
Sanko was asked about Pimblett and his behavior following the win while she was a guest on Submission Radio. She broke down how she thought he should have handled the controversial win.
“I think he did himself a little bit of a disservice, not in how he fought, and he can’t control what the judges do or don’t do,” she said. “But he’s got a character and I shouldn’t say he’s not playing a character because it really is, I think, who he is. But, you know, you lean into certain aspects of your personality and Paddy’s done such a good job of being rash, and confident, and Connor-ish. But at the same time, also having this really great component of mental health and wanting to help people and giving back to the community and to have those things at the same time, I think, is a winning formula.”
She went on to explain that even though he won that fight and regardless of how people scored it, the level of competition was up with the veteran Jard Gordon and Pimblett was not able to run through him as he has done in his first three UFC fights.
“When you have that moment where I feel like a lot of the audience wanted him to say, ‘Man, that was a close fight. I don’t know if I won that fight or not. I’m glad I got it on the judge’s scorecards love to go back and watch it, Jared’s great.’ I think his reaction to it did him a little bit of a disservice,” she said. “But in terms of what I think will happen to his trajectory next year, that’s really going to depend on what he does in the gym because now that he’s beaten Jared Gordon, he’s gonna get tougher and tougher opponents supposedly. He’s got to go back, work on some of the things that Jared was able to exploit in that fight.”
Pimblett had been finishing each of his UFC opponents before getting to Gordon. With the controversy in this one, it will be interesting to see how Pimblett moves going forward.
UFC 282’s fight week was the first real animosity he has seen from the fans. Perhaps a Paddy Pimblett heel turn could be coming.
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