Las Vegas — Lightweight Jared Gordon finally had a highlight reel finish at UFC Vegas 106, the kind of performance he always believed he could show since arriving in the UFC back in 2017.
Gordon (21-7, 1NC), who has faced the likes of Paddy Pimblett, King Green, and Charles Oliveira during his run with the company, knocked out Brazilian vet Thiago Moises on the preliminary portion of Saturday’s Fight Night card.
“It’s a long time coming, man. I think everyone knew, that’s how good I was, and that’s how good I am,” Gordon stated following the bout, speaking with media outlets in attendance including Cageside Press. “I just had to show it.”
Without getting into specifics, Gordon admitted that he had to make a few changes to get to this point. “I had to do a few things, some soul searching just to get things right. There’s no better time than now. I’m not 30 years old anymore, but I’m the smartest, most spiritually grounded, and healthiest I’ve ever been. So there’s no reason I can’t do great things.”
Past losses in fights he was winning seem to have gotten to Gordon, to some extent at least. “When you go into a fight and you win the fight, and then you still lose somehow, it kind of messes with you,” he noted. “Obviously there’s a few fights in my past that, that’s what happened. So I would go home and be like ‘I don’t understand, I won the fight, and I still lost.'”
Gordon believes he’s finally “found the key” after making a few personal changes. “Here I am, I’m the best I’ve ever been. I’ve shown in the last four, five fights, this is how good I am. Those fights weren’t flukes. This is me.”
One of those debatable fights was Gordon’s loss to Paddy Pimblett, which all but a single media outlet (this outlet included) scored for Gordon, per MMA Decisions. Still, it appears there’s no bad blood there, as Gordon expressed admiration for Pimblett, who recently defeated Michael Chandler, landing him in the title picture at lightweight.
“Listen, I’m Michael Chandler’s teammate, and I knew how that fight was going to go. I’m not trying to talk sh*t about Mike, he’s a friend of mine, we’re friendly, but they did a great job matching Paddy is what I’m trying to say here,” Gordon said of Pimblett’s recent performance. “And I’m not trying to talk sh*t about Mike because we are friends, but he is 2-5 or whatever he is in the UFC. He beat [Tony] Ferguson, and he caught [Dan] Hooker in the first whatever it was, two minutes the first round. That can happen to anyone.”
“Man I like Paddy bro. How do you not like him? F*cking guy is funny, he’s likeable, he’s winning. He’s got the f*cking greatest walkout ever. When I fought him and he walked out, I was like ‘holy sh*t this is f*cking amazing.’ It took twenty minutes for him to get to the cage, I’m like ‘man I’m f*cking getting cold in here, but I’m enjoying this.'”
Gordon saw that again in Miami when Pimblett walked out to face Chandler. “And I like him. Every time I see him we have fun, we laugh, we were f*cking eating cookies together or some sh*t. He’s a star bro, and I give it to him, he backs up the talk too. It’s not like he’s just, he makes it exciting. It’s not like he’s just going in there and it’s boring. His fights are fun to f*cking watch, and he’s a star. And I’m happy for him. Would I fight him again? Of course, I’ll f*cking fight anyone. But I’m happy for him.”
And no doubt happy for himself following one of the best performances of his career on Saturday.
Watch Jared Gordon’s full UFC Vegas 106 post-fight media appearance above.
