Paddy Pimblett reflected on his UFC 324 bout against Justin Gaethje and said he was unfairly affected by two eye pokes that went unpenalized.
“Even Joe Rogan is saying they got the replay, why don’t they take a point?” Pimblett said on his YouTube channel. “The eye pokes, watching it back lads, it just burns your head out even more, lad. Obviously I don’t want to sound like a sore loser, but that changes the whole fight.”
Pimblett suffered one eye poke in the first round and another in the second, which he says disrupted his vision and timing.
“I come out and easily win the third round, which is if any round I shouldn’t be winning, it’s the third,” he explained. “So imagine if that [eye poke] never happened in the second. See, I’m still wiping my eye there. My depth perception is off, they’re shouting at me to get the takedown, but sometimes he looks far away, sometimes he looks close.”
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Eye Pokes and Point Deductions
He also argued a point should have been taken for what Gaethje claimed was a low blow in the fourth round.
“For me, I win three and five,” Pimblett said. “If got point took off like he should’ve, lad, that’s a draw. I don’t want to sound bitter, you can’t cry over spilled milk, but I feel a bit — I know how Jared Gordon felt, I’ll put it that way. I knew the scorecards weren’t going to be in our favor … because I half knew I lost. You can see my eye is bright red there. It should’ve all been 48-47.”
Despite the frustration, Pimblett is already looking forward to his next fight and is eager to face top European talent.
“To be honest, it pissed me off that [Benoit] Saint-Denis moved above me for beating that bum Dan Hooker, who’s f–king s–t,” he said. “What’s going on there? I’ll fight anyone, I just want whatever name gets sent to me. I sign the contract and I fight them. But Saint-Denis sounds good to me. Europe’s two best lightweights going at it against each other. Or get the winner or the loser of Max [Holloway] vs. Charles [Oliveira]. F–k, I’ll fight Arman. I don’t give a f–k. I’ll fight anyone, but I’ll be back in the summer.”
Pimblett clearly feels the fight could have had a different outcome if the refereeing had been more strict. For him, the eye pokes and missed point deduction were enough to change the result, and he sees the bout as a draw.
