Jared Gordon feels the judges did him wrong this past weekend (Dec. 10, 2022) at UFC 282.
Taking on Paddy Pimblett in each fighter’s first UFC co-main event appearance, Gordon put on a solid performance as the betting underdog. Unfortunately for “Flash,” he came up on the wrong end of the unanimous decision result with all three judges scoring the bout 29-28 for Pimblett.
The spotlight was the biggest of Gordon’s 11-year career thus far which makes it all the tougher of a pill to swallow.
“It’s heartbreaking,” Gordon told MMA Fighting. “I’m devastated. But there’s nothing I can do obviously. We’ll see what comes with it.
“When I watched the fight back, I was like I won every round,” he continued. “I believe 99.9 percent of the world thinks I won, too. It’s not like it could have gone either way. No, I clearly won. But Doug Crosby is blind or something and I know the other guys had it going the other way, too, but I don’t know how anybody could have given him all the rounds. It’s impossible.”
Crosby’s card for the Pimblett versus Gordon bout wasn’t his only controversial one of the weekend as just the night before UFC 282, the judge scored the Bellator 289 headliner between Raufeon Stots and Danny Sabatello 50-45 for Sabatello who lost a split decision. As a result, Crosby is now being investigated by the Mohegan Tribe Athletic Department.
A win for Gordon would have gotten him back on a winning streak after defeating Leonardo Santos in Aug. 2022. Instead, Pimblett extended his streak to six in a row (four in UFC) despite many in the community disagreeing with the outcome.
Gordon has since mentioned how he’ll happily rematch “The Baddy” in London, England.
“It’s probably one of the worst decisions ever,” Gordon said. “It’s got to be top three worst decisions ever in UFC history, I would imagine at this point. I lost out on a lot of opportunity. Money, I lost out on a couple of sponsors that were in the works that I haven’t heard about yet since the fight. A loss on my record. What do they do with me now?
“It’s so fresh still so I’ve got to see how it all pans out,” he added. “I’ve got so much stuff going through my head. One moment, I’m like this isn’t that bad. The next moment, I’m devastated. I’m like all right, I should be grateful, I feel all right. Then I think about everything and then I’m devastated again. It’s sad. I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to think anymore. I lost out on a lot. But whatever, I believe most of the world knows who the real winner was.”
For complete UFC 282 results and coverage click here.