Skip to main content

Daniel Cormier: Paddy Pimblett needs to change approach, respect Jared Gordon more if they rematch

Daniel Cormier thinks Paddy Pimblett needs to stop being so dismissive of Jared Gordon if they rematch.

Pimblett (20-3 MMA, 4-0 UFC) edged out Gordon (19-6 MMA, 7-5 UFC) in a controversial decision win at UFC 282 this past December, and the popular fighter from Liverpool, England, disagreed with the public outrage.

In a recent video from his hospital bed, Pimblett went on a rant toward Gordon and expressed his desire to run things back. Pimblett said he injured his ankle in Round 1, which required surgery, and vowed he would have put Gordon away had he not been compromised. But Cormier thinks that attitude could cost “The Baddy.”

“He acted as if it wasn’t even competitive. Hey hindsight is (20/20),” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “But now looking back, at least he admits the fight was closer than he originally thought. I think he has to take a bit of a different approach with the Jared Gordon situation because I interviewed him before the fight and he almost dismissed Gordon like Gordon wasn’t on his level.

“And now he’s saying he’s going to get him out there very early. I think the approach maybe needs to change a little to where he respects Gordon a little bit more after spending 15 minutes in the octagon with him. I’m not saying fear him. I’m not saying be hesitant in your approach against him. I’m saying respect him to the point that you don’t suffer from maybe having an expectation.”

While Cormier thinks a rematch this soon may not make sense, he admits it would have his attention.

“Generally, we don’t get these rematches early in (their) career,” Cormier said. “The guys have to kind of comeback together after winning some when they want rematches. But I will say this: I’m interested in this one even more now because I’ve got to know if Paddy Pimblett can do it better, or what – maybe Jared Gordon completes the job as he thought he did in Fight 1. So this one has some meat on the bone.”

As Pimblett starts his road to recovery from ankle surgery, Gordon is slated to fight Bobby Green on April 22 at UFC Fight Night 222.



from MMA Junkie https://ift.tt/g09x6Lr
via IFTTT

Popular posts from this blog

Burmese fighter: Joshua Van details pioneering journey to plant Myanmar's flag on UFC turf

Joshua Van remembers asking his mother why they had to live in Houston. Why couldn’t they just go back home where things were familiar? He was 12 years old at the time, and Van wanted to go back to where he lived the first decade of his life, in Myanmar. Life wasn’t easy for an undersized pre-teen who spoke little English and was picked on during school for both of those attributes. Looking back, the math adds up that he’d become the first Burmese fighter to compete in the UFC. “I was a small kid,” Van recently told MMA Junkie. “From where I come from, you get picked on. It’s kind of like I fight everyday, and I got to the point where I enjoyed fighting. I watched clips on street fights and how to win street fights. I tried it in my next fight and things like that. That’s what got me into my career.” Van grew up one of five siblings in Myanmar, a country ridden with military and political conflict . When things increasingly worsened, Van’s parents decided to move to Malaysia. Van...

Max Griffin offended by booking against Michael Morales: 'They're sending a guy that they think can beat me'

LAS VEGAS – Max Griffin is not exactly happy with his matchup against Michael Morales . The 37-year-old welterweight veteran is set to take on Michael Morales on the main card of Saturday’s UFC on ESPN 47 at the UFC Apex. This booking made Griffin (19-9 MMA, 7-7 UFC) feel like he’s been set up to be a stepping stone for Morales (14-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC), who’s unbeaten and just 24 years old – and that has Griffin fuming. “I have a thing for these new guys: I get offended,” Griffin told reporters at Wednesday’s UFC on ESPN 47 media day. “So it’s another guy, 14-0, fought Trevin Giles. That was a terrible fight from Trevin Giles. He beat him in the beginning but burned his arms out, getting sloppy, and got knocked out. … He (Morales) ain’t fought nobody. It’s not even about who y’all fought, but I am me. I am him. I’m not the guy you want to fight when you’re that raw, that new.” Although there’s something to be said about Morales’s promise and rise, Griffin is not getting caught in a ba...

Bellator 290 post-event facts: Ryan Bader keeps perfect rematch record

The first Bellator event of 2023, Bellator 290 , went down Saturday at Kia Forum in Inglewood, Calif., and it marked a monumental occasion for both the promotion and the sport. In addition to being the organization’s debut showcase on CBS, the card marked the retirement fight of legendary former PRIDE champion Fedor Emelianenko (40-7 MMA, 4-3 BMMA), who suffered a first-round TKO loss to heavyweight titleholder Ryan Bader (31-7 MMA, 9-2 BMMA) in their main event rematch. The co-headliner saw middleweight champion Johnny Eblen (13-0 MMA, 9-0 BMMA) remain undefeated with a unanimous decision win over Anatoly Tokov (31-3 MMA, 7-1 BMMA) for his first title defense. For more on the numbers behind the title bouts, as well as the rest of the card, check below for MMA Junkie’s post-event facts from Bellator 290. from MMA Junkie https://ift.tt/9YPBuqA via IFTTT