Controversy

Pimblett vs. Gordon Scorecard: Did Jared Gordon Really Beat Paddy Pimblett?

Three judges, three 29-28 cards for Pimblett - and no two of them agreed on which rounds he won. Almost every media scorecard went the other way.

By Jashan Oct 11, 2026 · 6 min read

At a glance

1ResultPimblett by unanimous decision - 29-28, 29-28, 29-28
2The judgesDoug Crosby, Ron McCarthy and Chris Lee; referee Herb Dean
3The splitOnly round 2 was scored the same by all three judges
4The statsSignificant strikes 63-60 to Pimblett; takedowns 3-0 and control 6:28 to 0:35 for Gordon
5The mediaMMADecisions media tally: 23 of 24 scored it for Gordon
6Our card29-28 Gordon

What was at stake

By December 2022 Paddy Pimblett was the UFC's fastest-rising star. He was 19-3 and 3-0 in the UFC, with all three of those wins inside the distance, and he made his pay-per-view debut in the co-main event, under the vacant light heavyweight title fight between Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev. The sportsbooks made him a clear favourite, at around -250. Jared Gordon, 19-5, was the most experienced opponent Pimblett had faced in the UFC: a durable lightweight who was expected to test whether the hype could survive fifteen minutes. It did - on the scorecards, at least.

The official scorecards

Each judge's card, round by round, as reported by MMA Junkie and Sportskeeda, which agree on every round. Scores are written Pimblett first.

Judge	R1	R2	R3	Total
Doug Crosby	10-9	10-9	9-10	29-28
Ron McCarthy	10-9	10-9	9-10	29-28
Chris Lee	9-10	10-9	10-9	29-28

Referee: Herb Dean. Every round was scored 10-9.

The three identical totals hide the real story: the judges did not agree on what happened. All three gave Pimblett round 2. Crosby and McCarthy then gave him round 1 and gave Gordon round 3. Lee did the opposite - round 1 to Gordon, round 3 to Pimblett. So every judge gave Gordon a round, but a different one, and every judge gave Pimblett one of the two rounds that most observers thought Gordon had won. Change any single one of those rounds and Gordon wins a split decision.

Round by round

Round 1 - Pimblett 2-1 (Crosby and McCarthy)

Pimblett pressed early with kicks, including a high kick, and the two traded hard low kicks. Gordon answered with his left hand, and the left hook was the shot of the round: ESPN's live scoring gave him the round for it. Pimblett landed some hard combinations and tried a takedown late, but Gordon finished the round on top. Significant strikes: Gordon 32, Pimblett 29. Gordon had 28 seconds of control; Pimblett had none. Only Lee gave Gordon the round.

Round 2 - Pimblett (all three judges)

Pimblett's best round. His low kicks were landing, he worked combinations and went to the body - 11 of 12 body strikes, against two of four in the first round. Gordon got him down along the fence, but Pimblett attacked a choke from underneath before he lost the position. Gordon finished with another hard left. Significant strikes: Pimblett 28, Gordon 24; total strikes 47-39. Gordon completed one of two takedowns and held 2:07 of control. The judges were unanimous, and so is almost everyone else.

Round 3 - Gordon 2-1 (Crosby and McCarthy)

The round that decided the argument. Gordon held Pimblett against the cage for most of it, completing two of three takedowns and piling up 3:53 of control, though he landed very little of substance while he did. Pimblett took Gordon's back briefly after a scramble before the horn. Significant strikes: Pimblett 6, Gordon 4; total strikes 21-21. Lee gave the round - and with it the fight - to Pimblett.

What the numbers say

The official statistics, round by round (Pimblett first):

Round	Sig. strikes	Total strikes	Takedowns	Control	Knockdowns
R1	29 – 32	29 – 40	0/1 – 0/1	0:00 – 0:28	0 – 0
R2	28 – 24	47 – 39	0/0 – 1/2	0:00 – 2:07	0 – 0
R3	6 – 4	21 – 21	0/2 – 2/3	0:35 – 3:53	0 – 0
Total	63 – 60	97 – 100	0/3 – 3/6	0:35 – 6:28	0 – 0

On the stat sheet this was close, and the closeness cuts both ways. Pimblett landed three more significant strikes over the fight, 63 to 60, but threw far more to get them: 155 attempts at 41% against Gordon's 103 at 58%. Gordon landed more total strikes (100-97), had the only three takedowns, and controlled Pimblett for 6:28 of the 15 minutes. Nobody was knocked down.

The round-1 numbers matter most, because that is the round two judges took from Gordon. He out-landed Pimblett 32-29 in significant strikes and 40-29 in total strikes, landed the harder single shots, and was on top at the end. Round 3 is a different question: Gordon won it on control and takedowns, not on damage, and the scoring criteria put effective striking and grappling ahead of time spent holding a man against a fence. That is the honest case for Lee's card. It is not a case for Crosby's and McCarthy's.

The media did not split. The MMADecisions tally was 23 of 24 media scores for Gordon, the figure Sherdog and most outlets reported; Bloody Elbow counted 24 of 25, with 11 of them at 30-27. Either way, one member of the media had Pimblett winning.

How we scored it

Round	MMA.SOCIAL	Why
R1	10-9 Gordon	The cleaner, harder shots - the left hook above all - more strikes landed (32-29 significant, 40-29 total), and he finished the round on top.
R2	10-9 Pimblett	The better striking, 28-24, the body work and the choke attempt outweighed Gordon's takedown and two minutes of control.
R3	10-9 Gordon	Thin on damage, but two takedowns and 3:53 of control against a late back take; Pimblett did nothing to win it.
Total	29-28 Gordon

Round 1 is the one we cannot see for Pimblett. He had moments - the kicks, the combinations, a late takedown attempt - but Gordon landed more and landed harder, and the round ended with Gordon on top. Round 3 is weaker for Gordon than his fans remember: it was a control round, not a damage round. Even so, Pimblett spent most of it pinned to the fence and landed six significant strikes. Give him round 3, as Lee did, and you still have to give Gordon round 1, which Lee also did. Pimblett only wins the fight if you give him round 1 or round 3, and each judge took one of those rounds from Gordon.

Ron McCarthy's own father agreed with the media. "You got that wrong. I thought Jared Gordon won 29-28," Big John McCarthy said he told his son, and he suggested that the crowd's roar at every Pimblett moment may have swayed the judges.

What happened next

Fighters, fans and media called it a robbery. "I was robbed everyone knows it," Gordon wrote on social media. Pimblett would not have it. "Look at his face and look at mine," he said at the post-fight press conference, arguing that he had done the damage, and added: "I deal in facts, and I won a unanimous decision." Dana White blamed the loser's third round: "Horrible game plan by Gordon." Joe Rogan's reaction on the broadcast as the cards were read became its own clip.

Much of the criticism landed on Doug Crosby, one of the two judges who gave Pimblett round 1.

Gordon asked for a rematch within days; it has never been booked. His next fight, against Bobby Green in April 2023, ended in a no contest after an accidental clash of heads, and he knocked out Mark O. Madsen in the first round at UFC 295 that November. Pimblett went on to beat Tony Ferguson by decision at UFC 296, submit Bobby Green in the first round at UFC 304 and stop Michael Chandler in the third round at UFC 314, before losing a unanimous decision to Justin Gaethje for the interim lightweight title at UFC 324 in January 2026, his first defeat in the UFC.

The verdict

Pimblett vs. Gordon was a close fight with a wrong result. Round 2 was Pimblett's; round 1 was Gordon's on strikes, damage and position; round 3 was Gordon's on control. Each judge found a different way to give Pimblett one of Gordon's rounds, and a crowd that cheered every Pimblett moment may have helped them do it. On our card Gordon won 29-28, and so he did on 23 of 24 media cards.

Full fight stats: Pimblett vs. Gordon. The rest of the night: UFC 282. More disputed cards: the fighters with the most disputed losses and most UFC decisions.

Sources

Questions

Who won Pimblett vs. Gordon?

Paddy Pimblett, by unanimous decision at UFC 282 on December 10, 2022. All three judges scored it 29-28. Most media scorecards had Jared Gordon winning, and so does ours, 29-28.

What was the Pimblett vs. Gordon scorecard?

Doug Crosby, Ron McCarthy and Chris Lee all scored it 29-28 for Pimblett. Crosby and McCarthy gave Pimblett rounds 1 and 2 and Gordon round 3. Lee gave Gordon round 1 and Pimblett rounds 2 and 3.

Was Pimblett vs. Gordon a robbery?

It is widely called one. The MMADecisions media tally had 23 of 24 scores for Gordon, and the father of judge Ron McCarthy, Big John McCarthy, said he thought Gordon won 29-28. Pimblett and Dana White both rejected the claim.

Who landed more strikes in Pimblett vs. Gordon?

Pimblett landed 63 significant strikes to Gordon's 60, but Gordon landed more total strikes, 100 to 97. Gordon also had all three takedowns and 6:28 of control time to Pimblett's 0:35.

Did Pimblett and Gordon have a rematch?

No. Gordon asked for one within days of UFC 282, but the fight has never been booked.