Former UFC middleweight champion, Chris Weidman has argued that promotional lightweight contender, Paddy Pimblett should have been on the wrong side of last weekend’s UFC 282 scorecard against Jared Gordon – as wide as 30-27, in fact, before questioning if he’s just delusional or if he’s honing a gimmick.
Weidman, a former undisputed middleweight champion under the banner of the UFC, has yet to return to the Octagon since he suffered a gruesome compound fracture of his left tibia and fibula in a first round loss to Uriah Hall in April of last year.
As for Liverpool grappler, Pimblett, the Next Generation MMA staple managed to improve to 4-0 under the banner of the UFC last weekend in the co-main event of the final flagship event of the year for the organization.
Nabbing a 29-28 unanimous decision win on all three judge’s scorecards, Pimblett’s triumph over Gordon was immediately called into question, with the majority of onlookers within the community scoring the bout in favor of the Queens native.
Chris Weidman questions the persona on display from UFC lightweight, Paddy Pimblett
However, following the win, Pimbeltt claimed that bout was no way near as close as viewers made out – labelling them as “haters”. And since then, Baldwin favorite, Weidman has questioned if the former Cage Warriors champion is simply just madly delusional, or simply playing to a gimmick.
“Take away the fighting for a second, Paddy (Pimblett) is just confusing the hell out of me,” Chris Weidman said on Daniel Cormier’s YouTube channel. “I don’t know. I just want to know, is it a gimmick? Like him jumping on the mic right after that he gets the decision when I thought he definitely lost 30-27.”
“That being said, I don’t know how if it’s confidence or a gimmick,” Chris Weidman explained. “Like it’s either he’s completely delusional, or it’s a gimmick, and if it’s a gimmick, all power to him, I bow down to him, you’re doing a great job. But if he’s that delusional, he’s out of his mind.”
Pimblett also claimed during fight week that he would have provided a sterner challenge to lightweight champion, Islam Makhachev at UFC 280 than former titleholder, Charles Oliveira mustered – leading to further confusion from Weidman.
“For him to think that he could give a good match to (Islam) Makhacehv and compare himself to Charles Oliveira when he was getting rag-dolled by a guy, Jared Gordon, who I have a lot of respect for, but he’s a small 55-er and he’s talking about Makhachev whose speciality is wrestling.” Chris Weidman said. “And he’s talking about Oliveira whose speciality is monster dudes, whose speciality is with the ground game and so I don’t understand where he’s getting this from. How can he talk like that?” (Transcribed by MMA News)