Paddy Pimblett defeated Jared Gordon in the co-main event of UFC 282. While all of his previous UFC wins came via finishes, Pimblett went the full distance for the first time in his UFC career. He won the bout via unanimous decision as all three scorecards were in favor of the Brit, 29-28. Although the bout was not particularly exciting, Pimblett thought it was the Fight of the Night and Justin Gaethje slams him for it.
During his post-fight interview, Paddy disagreed with fans who thought the bout was a close one and told Joe Rogan that he was very confident about the result. He also claimed that the contest was the most entertaining one of the night and it should have gotten the “FOTN” award (worth $50,000) amongst UFC 282 bonuses. But, fans did not agree with it as many thought he lost the bout.
Not only the fans, even the UFC decided not to give the bout the bonus and awarded it to Darren Till vs Dricus du Plessis instead. It looks like UFC lightweight fighter Justin Gaethje took offense to Paddy’s demands. Gaethje, who is famous for putting on entertaining fights, added that Pimblett’s performance did not warrant a bonus at all!
Justin Gaethje slams Paddy Pimblett for forcing Dana White to give him a bonus
After Paddy Pimblett’s bout ended at UFC 282, Dave Portnoy shared a video on Twitter where Paddy was asking Dana White to give him the Fight of the Night bonus. The UFC President also nodded along and affirmed Paddy’s stance. Justin retweeted the video and criticized the Barstool Sports team for backing Paddy despite such a lackluster performance.
This makes the barstool guys look really bad. Just bending over for the lad. Fight of the night? Barstool can give him 50k but that performance will never get you a bonus in the octagon. https://t.co/VCmn8djZS0
— Justin Gaethje 🇺🇸 (@Justin_Gaethje) December 11, 2022
Team Barstool was present inside the T-Mobile arena during the bout. Fans may wonder why they are backing the Liverpool native. Paddy signed a seven-figure contract with Barstool after his meteoric rise to stardom. Once a fan pointed that out to The Highlight, Gaethje replied that there were athletes on the card who deserved the money more than Paddy The Baddy.
They’re trying to take money earned out of the pocket of a much more deserving athlete. We fight for this money.
— Justin Gaethje 🇺🇸 (@Justin_Gaethje) December 11, 2022
YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul also commented on the matter. Paul took an aim at Dana White and re-iterated his point that the company was not paying their fighters enough. He also thinks Paddy “begging” for the bonus is a very bad look for the sport.
Equally sad/bad to see a fighter begging for $50K when the guy he’s begging is making hundreds of millions a year from fighters.
— Jake Paul (@jakepaul) December 12, 2022
Jake and Paddy recently had a back-and-forth where Paul offered Paddy $1 million to spar with him. The 27-year-old accepted the offer and asked Jake to show up on the Monday after the event at a UFC gym for the sparring session. However, it does not look like the sparring match happened after all.
What are your thoughts on the matter? Let us know in the comments down below.