- Jared Gordon discussed his take on his upcoming fight with Nasrat Haqparast
- “Flash” reacted to Dustin Poirier’s UFC 302 performance
- The 35-year-old reflected on his loss to Paddy Pimblett and assessed “The Baddy” vs. Bobby Green
Jared Gordon is confident about being the better fighter between him and Nasrat Haqparast at UFC Saudi Arabia and also discussed Paddy Pimblett’s upcoming fight as well.
The more well-rounded fighter in his upcoming fight
In an exclusive interview with Middle Easy, “Flash” recognized the abilities of Haqparast. However, Gordon is convinced that his overall game is way better than his opponent.
“I said yes right away I mean he’s on a three-fight winning streak, we’re basically both on the cusp of Top 15 so you know you can’t say no you know what I mean? so here I am,” Gordon said.
“I think there’s no secret he wants to keep it standing and he’s more of a boxer than he is anything or uses his hands more than he does anything. He throws kicks obviously and he has decent wrestling defense. He’s a good fighter man, the kid’s been in the UFC for a while… I’m not taking anything from him, I just think that I’m the more well-rounded fighter. I know my ground game is better than him and when I take him, down it’s gonna show,” he added.
“I think being well-rounded is a must now in in any level of MMA but you need to be a specialist in one thing, I believe also,” he explained.
UFC 302 reaction
Gordon said he didn’t see anything unexpected from Dustin Poirier in the UFC 302 main event. For “Flash,” Poirier has proven all these years that he is a “dog” and an “elite” fighter and that’s what he showed against Islam Makhachev at UFC 302.
“It didn’t exceed my expectations,” Gordon said. “I knew he was gonna do that, Dustin’s a dog and you know coming off this fight with BSD [St-Denis] definitely gave him confidence like man I can get out of grappling exchanges with these big guys and I can get up and I can finish you even after being almost finished myself a couple times and he’s part of the elite group you know, so I thought that’s how the fight was gonna go.”
Jared wants the winner of Pimblett vs. Green
Gordon also weighed in on Pimblett’s upcoming showdown with Bobby Green at UFC 304. The way Gordon sees it, both of his former rivals have the ability to finish each other. However, “Flash” is certain that like him, “The Baddy” could also beat Green.
More importantly, Gordon said he wants to face the winner as he believed they have a score to settle.
“The thing is with Bobby, he’s so unpredictable. You don’t know what you’re gonna get from him and he gets going then he wins you but he’s liable to get hit and Paddy goes for it you know, hands are down, he’s got that swag, Paddy goes for it. If you watch my fight [against Green], my hands were up the whole time when I fought Paddy, and I won but you know f**king look what Bobby Green did to me, I’m beating him and then he just lunged in with his head, that had to be on purpose because he was frustrated cuz he was like, he didn’t expect me to do what I was doing. I was winning that fight,” Gordon assessed.
“So, I think Paddy can get it done too. I think if Bobby gets going, Paddy can’t have it off night. He’s gotta get going right away, can’t let Bobby set a rhythm, once Bobby sets the rhythm, then you know he starts getting confident and then he starts doing well but obviously Paddy is also unpredictable and can land a big shot or take you down and so I mean, I don’t know man, I want the winner though,” he added.
Jared believes he’s one of the toughest opponents Paddy has ever had in the UFC
It can be recalled that Gordon’s decision loss to Pimblett at UFC 282 was deemed controversial. For “Flash,” regardless of what the decision was, the way “The Baddy” torched a legend like Tony Ferguson speaks volumes of how tough he was as an opponent for Pimblett.
“It’s been over a year and his fight against Tony [Ferguson] like, bro he destroyed him and but he still didn’t look great, Paddy. And then all of his other opponents, Paddy, like, he destroyed them so like what does that say about where I’m at you know,” Gordon said.
“I don’t know, I’m not trying to pat myself on the back but I just think that they want to like, I don’t I think they want to stay away from that fight, me versus Paddy because they saw what I did in the first one, the second one, not so, I don’t know I think it would be awesome to fight Paddy in like a co-main or a main event in London or something or in Vegas again,” he added.
Gordon will try and break into the lightweight division’s Top 15 with a victory over Haqparast. The pair will square off at UFC Saudi on June 22.
Watch Gordon’s full interview below:
