Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping doesn’t like to throw around the word “robbery,” but believes Jared Gordon was the true winner of Saturday night’s co-main event.
At UFC 282, ‘Flash’ found himself shockingly on the wrong side of a 29-28 decision in favor of his opponent, Paddy Pimblett. The fallout from that decision is yet to calm with virtually everyone in the MMA community speaking out. You can now add ‘The Count’ to the list of people who are siding with Jared Gordon. In a video uploaded on his YouTube channel, Bisping broke down the bout and delivered his own assessment.
“The word robbery doesn’t apply here. That is a word that a lot of fans have got to stop saying. When the judges don’t agree with your decision, but it’s a close fight, that’s not a robbery. It’s a difference of opinion and I’m not defending the judges by the way because they are trained professionals. That’s what they do, but they do get it wrong and they do come out with some utter nonsense sometimes.”
Looking at the fight round by round, Bisping recognized that Jared Gordon clearly won the first round, both on the stats, but by landing the bigger shots throughout the opening five minutes. ‘The Count’ does believe there is a case to be made for Pimblett winning the second round but acknowledged that Gordon once again landed the more significant strikes.
Gordon was criticized for his game plan in the third round which was to simply clinch and hold Pimblett against the fence, riding out what he believed would be a certain victory on the scorecards. Though it’s not the most exciting way to win a fight, the plan worked in the sense that it limited Pimblett to just six strikes landed. Gordon landed a takedown late in the round and maintained control for the majority. As a result, Bisping believes Gordon won the third and thus, the fight.
“In the third round, Jared won that round clearly. Damage is the number one criteria but if there isn’t much damage on either side, then you go to other things like Octagon control, aggression, game plan. Things like that. Duration of control. Jared had duration for most of round three. Paddy landed a couple of shots, but let’s be honest, it was one of those rounds where people were starting to look at their phones and things like that. There wasn’t a lot happening so I think both men need to learn from that.”
Jared Gordon defeated Paddy Pimblett on the Verdict Scorecard by a significant margin.#UFC282 pic.twitter.com/XD8cayDNmn
— Verdict (@VerdictMMA) December 11, 2022
Michael Bisping, Like Many Others, Had Jared Gordon Beating Paddy Pimblett Decisively
Evaluating each round, it was quite clear to Michael Bisping, and the rest of the world (minus three judges) that Jared Gordon was the rightful winner at UFC 282.
“For my money, it was 30-27 or 29-28 for Jared Gordon and I feel for him. I feel for Paddy as well. I do because if you look on social media now, he’s getting a lot of sh*t. Of course, there was that thing at the start of the week with Ariel Helwani. People kind of turned on him for that one and now with the fight, with the post-fight, he didn’t really give Jared too much credit you know. He was kind of cocky about the result and when you scrape by a decision like that, you’ve gotta be humble. You have to.”
Even with taking the L in such a high-profile matchup, Bisping believes that Jared Gordon’s stock will see a significant rise, considering a vast of fans and fighters backed him as the better fighter on Saturday night. As for Paddy Pimblett, ‘The Count’ sees this as nothing more than a bump in the road that will pass over time.
“Jared, I think his stock will rise even though he lost, I think in a lot of people’s minds he won the fight and therefore he handled himself with class and all the rest of it like Jared always does. And for Paddy, it’s just a momentary bump in the road.”
