UFC fans believe that Dana White's relieved reaction to hearing Paddy Pimblett win his fight with Jared Gordon on Saturday night sums up the controversial decision.
Footage that was supposed to show Barstool Sports boss Dave Portnoy as he celebrated the Pimblett decision also captured White standing at cageside. And he appeared to be visibly nervous as ring announcer Bruce Buffer announced the winner, with the Brit taking the win by unanimous decision and White breathing a sigh of relief.
Fans reckon that White was keen to see Pimblett, who has received a lot of backing promotionally from the UFC, get his fourth win under their banner. There was outrage on Saturday when the UFC 282 co-main event saw Gordon beaten, despite having landed a number of flush shots on Pimblett's chin and controlling for over 6 minutes of the 15-minute contest.
One fan wrote in a comment under the video "look at that Dana reaction… tell me it wasn’t rigged," to which another user responded "Was thinking the same thing. Dana almost looked a little bit sheepish. Something going on here. Something is definitely up here."
There is no indication of wrongdoing, and Pimblett won the decision on all three judges' scorecards. He insists that the fight wasn't even all that close, and that he comfortably deserved the decision victory, perhaps even by way of winning all three of the five-minute rounds.
One fan joked that "Dana looks more worried" than Portnoy and his pal Dan 'Big Cat' Katz in the clip of the decision being read, and another added "Usually I’m always with you on things… Not this, paddy didn’t win that fight. Paddy was handed that W because he will sell more tickets in the long run. Really disappointed with UFC [right now]."
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Some other eagle-eyed Twitter used noticed that White appeared to be facing away from the octagon as the call was being made, with one writing "Dana knew he lost. Why wasn’t he facing the other way lol." A number of others made the assertion that "This is a bad look" for the UFC.
Pimblett hit out at his critics at the post-fight press conference, saying: "I know I won that fight. I deal in facts and I won an unanimous decision, it wasn't even like it was a split decision. I don't care what anyone says. When you look back at the history books, I've got a green marker next to my name so everyone else can suck my a***hole.
"Look at his face and then look at mine, fights get scored on damage now and I landed a lot more damage. After looking at the stats after the fight, I think I won all three rounds. Control time means nothing, damage does. I spoke to him in the back, he said to me 'I thought I won'. I told him he was a tough son of a b**** because he took some big shots and kept walking forward."
