Paddy Pimblett and Jared Gordon have given opposing views of a 2018 training session ahead of their UFC 282 fight.
Pimblett, who fights Gordon this Saturday in Las Vegas, told BT Sport that he submitted the American twice in five minutes when they rolled at MMA legend Renzo Gracie's New York gym in 2018. Mirror Fighting questioned Gordon on the matter during the press conference ahead of their fight and he gave a different view of the meeting in question.
"We never rolled ever, the first time we had physical contact was this past week," Gordon said. "As a matter of fact, I remember walking into Renzo's and recognising him on the mat. We made eye contact and then he looked at the mat, and that was the last time I saw him in person until this week.
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"This is the first time that you're going to bring that up? All the talk leading up to this fight and all of sudden we rolled once and you submitted me twice? These are bald faced lies and we can see it on your face. I've never rolled with you, we have never touched each other until I touched you on Tuesday. I have no reason to talk about this, you're lying."
Pimblett was quick to defend himself after Gordon accused him of lying about their training session, with 'The Baddy' insisting that it took place just weeks after one of his fights in 2018. The Liverpudlian said he only brought it up as he was asked about any past meeting between them in an interview, adding that he was "fat" at the time they first met after going on a post-fight binge.
"We rolled and I haven't mentioned it, I just got asked about it yesterday," Pimblett replied. "We rolled once and I submitted him twice, I haven't got to lie about anything. We rolled years ago, I was a fat b****rd at the time. I was like 88kg and I had just fought three weeks before. Come on lad."
Gordon had previously stated that Pimblett was born with "quit" in him when questioned about some of the Scouser's previous losses. The American backtracked on those claims by stating: "I called you a quitter, you never quit in your fights you just faded. I'm not going to sit here and say that you gave up and just rolled over."
Pimblett then agreed with Gordon's corrected comments about him fading against the likes of Soren Bak and Nad Narimani, with the pair going on to exchange words during their staredown before laughing it off and shaking hands.
