Henry Cejudo is baffled by the judges who scored the UFC 282 co-main event in favor of Paddy Pimblett.
Pimblett (20-3 MMA, 4-0 UFC) defeated Jared Gordon (19-6 MMA, 7-5 UFC) by unanimous decision this past Saturday at T-Mobile Arena in a decision that took Gordon and most others by surprise.
Cejudo explained that Gordon continuously found a home for his left hand and thinks the judges are showing favoritism when scoring fights. He referenced Sean O’Malley’s split decision win over Petr Yan at UFC 280 as a similar example.
“‘Paddy the Fatty’ – I just don’t know what to say,” Cejudo said on his YouTube channel. “A lot of these guys are just delusional thinking they’re better than what they really are. He lost that fight. I think he needs to rewatch it, or maybe I need to rewatch it, but I think the whole world saw that that’s one of the worst decisions ever.
“Talk about complete robbery. It has nothing to do really with Paddy. It has to do with the judges. … This isn’t a popularity contest. First they did it with Sean O’Malley against Petr Yan.”
Pimblett now is 4-0 in the UFC, but Cejudo thinks his performance against Gordon shows he’s not ready for a step up in competition just yet.
“Ilia Topuria would absolutely hurt him,” Cejudo said. “He’d be in big, big trouble. But I don’t think Paddy wants that, and I don’t think the UFC wants to do that. Or they may want to do that after they saw that damn performance. They may just say, ‘Hey, you know what? We might just take our money and invest it with Ilia Topuria.’
“It’s just a bummer that the sport has to deal with a guy – he’s not even a high-level fighter and he gets a co-main event. It’s like they’re really trying to push somebody too, too premature or (who) doesn’t have the full capability, the full talent.”
