Paddy Pimblett has been warned by veteran commentator and comedian Joe Rogan that he could turn fans against him after he scraped to a decision victory over Jared Gordon.
The podcast host was commentating on Pimblett's pay-per-view debut, which followed a disaster fight week where he came under fire from fans amid a number of minor scandals. And he believes that if the Scouse fighter continues to act how he did following the Gordon win, including claiming that he had comfortably won the bout, he could see fans turn on him.
Rogan was speaking on his popular show The Joe Rogan Experience with top UFC welterweight Belal Muhammad when he made the implication that Pimblett may have been given the decision due to his popularity. And he expressed his concern that the Brit may be in trouble if he ends up taking a further step up in his next fight.
"He [Jared Gordon] got f***ed and that's unfortunate," Rogan said. "I don't like when someone gets by just because they're famous and they have this big personality and everybody loves them. The problem with that is people are going to be rooting against him now in the next fight, so now he's going to go in there against someone and maybe he's going to go in against someone who's on another level."
Pimblett spent the majority of his interview time after the Gordon fight disagreeing with fans and pundits who believed that the fight was a robbery, or even a close win. He also started his interview with Rogan in the octagon after his victory by mocking a dispute he had engaged in with journalist Ariel Helwani during the week, which rubbed fans up the wrong way.
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After declaring the fight "wasn't close" he also demanded a 'Fight of the Night' bonus despite the bout having been fought almost entirely against the cage for the last five of the 15 minutes. "Not at all," he responded when Rogan pressed him on it being close.
"I won the first two rounds and then coasted in the third, I knew I was two rounds up. I didn't want to do anything dangerous and risk losing the fight. I knew that I'd won the first two rounds pretty easily. Jared's one tough motherf***er. He's one tough man, the trials and tribulations he's had in his life and he's come back, hats off to Jared."
Pimblett won't be back in the octagon any time soon, after suffering an ankle injury during the Gordon fight that will require surgery. The UFC will be in London for a pay-per-view event this March, but he won't have recovered in time to land on that card or any one close to it.
