Michael Chandler had a lot on the line heading into his UFC 314 clash with Paddy Pimblett.
The co-main event ended up being a huge moment for the surging brit as Pimblett stopped Chandler in dominant fashion to earn the biggest win of his career.
Chandler has already spoken about the loss after many viewed the matchup as a crossroads fight between two competitors that are at different ends of their careers.
At 39-years-old, this was the former title challenger’s chance to show that he still belongs at the top of the lightweight division by ending his opponent’s win streak.
Though Pimblett proved some doubters wrong, a teammate of his opponent recently revealed that he had his doubts about ‘Iron’ Mike’s chances after watching him prepare for his seventh appearance inside the Octagon.
Jared Gordon questions Michael Chandler’s commitment for his UFC 314 training camp
In a recent interview with Inside Fighting, Jared Gordon revealed that he wasn’t entirely surprised by the way that the co-main event of UFC 314 played out.
The UFC lightweight has ties to both men that were involved having been narrowly beaten by Paddy Pimblett at UFC 282 whilst being a teammate of Michael Chandler’s at Kill Cliff FC.
Gordon said that whilst he never counted out the former Bellator star, he did start to question Chandler’s chances after watching him go through his training camp.
“I always thought that he could beat him because he could catch him with one but like, I saw the way he was training, who he was training with and I was like, I don’t think he’s gonna do it. Mike’s my buddy but that’s just how I felt going into it.”
April 12 in Miami was the former title challenger’s second fight back following the long break that he took after his loss to Dustin Poirier where he waited for a matchup with Conor McGregor which failed to materialize.
Many thought that it would be tough for him to go straight back in to the division’s top 15 after not fighting for two years and Gordon believes that whilst it is understandable why Chandler wouldn’t train as hard as he once did, there were some questions about his commitment this time around.
“Not going all out, not really training with guys that resemble Paddy that are gonna push him. I mean, I get it. He’s older in the fight game.
“He’s been in wars so there’s only so much abuse that you should be taking in the gym and he gets paid a boatload of money so for him, it’s probably like, ‘Just get through the fight, get paid no matter what, and hopefully I’ll win’. That’s just what it seemed like to me.”
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Jared Gordon isn’t surprised that Paddy Pimblett overlooked him at UFC 282
Since they met inside the Octagon at UFC 282, Paddy Pimblett has stated on record that he overlooked Jared Gordon in what ended up being the toughest fight of his UFC career to date.
Pimblett won a unanimous decision despite all but 1 of the 24 media scores having the fight in favor of the American with many giving Gordon all three rounds.
‘Flash’ has since shared some friendly exchanges with ‘The Baddy’, stating in the interview with Inside Fighting that he isn’t surprised that the Brit underestimated him based on his UFC run.
“I knew that he would be surprised when we got in there. I mean, if you look at my record, the guys that I fought, I’ve basically only lost to the best guys.
“I did really well leading up to the Paddy fight… I could see how he could look past me, but I knew that I was going to give him a run for his money and beat him, which I did.”