MMA

The Paddy Pimblett hype train is still on the rails, but its pace has slowed to a crawl.

The Baddy from Liverpool, one of the most popular young fighters in MMA today, returned to action in the co-headlining attraction of Saturday night's UFC 282 card in Las Vegas, taking on New York's Jared Gordon.

It was viewed as the toughest test of the Brit's career after stoppage wins in his first three UFC bouts. And while he ultimately passed it with a unanimous-decision victory, the context of that result is impossible to ignore.

It was kind of bogus.

From an early vantage point, this fight looked like a layup for Pimblett. It was clear that he was the bigger, more powerful man in the cage. It seemed like he would have a speed advantage. He seemed to be the better grappler on paper.

And while he has shown some massive holes in his striking defense in previous fights, his opponent Gordon has never had much in the way of stopping power, so Pimblett's chances in a firefight looked good, too.

Even the crowd was behind the Brit, abandoning the U-S-A chants they had favored in earlier matchups on the card to shower him in cheers and pelt their countryman with boos.

With full respect for Gordon, who long ago proved himself to be a serviceable fighter, it really looked as though he had been brought in to lose.

But he fought a great fight. An excellent fight.

Within the first minute of the first round, he had cracked Pimblett with several sizzling left hooks, capitalizing on the Brit's defensive shortcomings with practiced efficiency. Commentators Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier hummed nervously as it happened, sensing, like many viewers, that things could get bad for The Baddy in a blink.

While the Brit survived that opening stanza, he continued to eat big shots into Round 2, some of them pretty substantial. He counterbalanced that adversity with some brief patches of success on the mat but also found himself struggling with Gordon in that phase of the game—a worrying sign considering he was supposed to be the better grappler in the matchup.

In Round 3, it was more of the same: Gordon doing better work on the feet and the mat, and Pimblett hanging in there, seemingly a step behind wherever the fight went.

By the time the third round had ended, most fans and pundits on Twitter were in agreement that Gordon had won at least two rounds and should therefore win a decision should the fight go the distance.

But all three judges scored it for Pimblett, promoting immediate cries of "robbery" all over social media. We throw that word around a lot in MMA, to the point that it has lost a lot of its meaning, but in the case, it might be the best word to describe the situation.

Just look at the post-fight stats.

Gordon landed slightly more total strikes (100 to 97) and had a much better accuracy rate (57 to 40 percent) regarding significant strikes. He had also completed three of six takedown attempts, which he used to wrack up 6:28 of control time. Meanwhile, Pimblett failed on all three of his attempts and only controlled 0:35 of action on the mat.

The thousands of Pimblett fans in Las Vegas were clearly happy to hear their man announced as the winner, but the truth is that there was little merit to the Brit's victory and that the outcome will only hurt him going forward.

Contrary to Pimblett's massive popularity, there have always been legitimate questions about his ceiling. He's clearly capable of beating lower-level fighters, but after three losses outside the UFC, and an early scare in his promotional debut against Luigi Vendramini, there has been plenty of reason to doubt he has the skill to compete with the best of the best.

An impressive stoppage win over a veteran like Gordon would have done a lot to dispel those doubts. A convincing decision victory might have been even more valuable in that regard.

Instead, we watched Pimblett get out-fought for three rounds and walk away with a win nonetheless. That outcome will only give credence to his naysayers' arguments and embolden his haters. It also puts the UFC's matchmakers in a tough spot.

The Brit is now 4-0 in the promotion, which would ordinarily warrant a step up to the next level, but after UFC 282, there's less reason than ever to believe he's ready for that level.

One way or the other, he will need a seriously impressive performance in his next fight if he intends to get his hype train back up to full speed.

After five hard-fought rounds between Jan Błachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev at UFC 282, the judges declared a split draw, and the light heavyweight championship remains vacated.

This marked only the fifth time in UFC history a title fight has ended in a draw:

Błachowicz showed right away that it wouldn't be an easy night for Ankalaev. He landed left kicks that forced the 30-year-old to switch stances early, setting up a storyline that would play a role throughout the fight.

The Polish veteran turned up the heat with the low kicks in the second round. Ankalaev was clearly hobbled, although he continued to throw punches that landed as well.

An already intriguing fight became even more interesting when Ankalaev finally got his first takedown in the third round. He controlled Błachowicz for the final parts of the third round, and a new path to victory was forged.

Ankalaev wasted no time in getting the fight to the mat in the championship rounds. He controlled most of the fourth and fifth rounds with his ground game, slowly accumulating damage and making his case to take the title.

The result throws the light heavyweight division into even more chaos. The main event was originally slated to be a rematch between Jiří Procházka and Glover Teixeira. However, a serious shoulder injury led Procházka to vacate the belt.

Ankalaev was supposed to fight Teixeira for the championship, but he turned down the bout citing Ankalaev's southpaw stance, per ESPN's Brett Okamoto. He wanted more time to prepare for the unique challenges the Russian presents.

Instead, the UFC replaced Teixeira with Błachowicz, who happened to win the belt the last time it was vacated.

Now, there's a bit of a logjam as Teixeira was expecting to fight the winner of the bout. Now there is no winner to fight.

"I think I'll fight the winner of the two because I'm still the No. 1 contender," Teixeira told Okamoto. "But they can take anybody they want. They can take someone not even ranked to fight for the title because it's their company. I don't know what they're going to do, but I'm here. The plan is to fight the winner. I've earned that."

Procházka will need time to heal, so there is some time for the division to get sorted out before he returns.

Paddy "The Baddy" Pimblett took another step toward stardom with a unanimous decision win over Jared Gordon in the co-main event of UFC 282 from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

Pimblett was definitely the bigger star going into the fight but Jared Gordon wasn't there to roll over. He got off to a good start and landed some left hooks that weren't good for The Baddy.

The second round was much more interesting. Pimblett settled in and landed some good hooks and a few leg kicks, but Gordon continued to find his opponent's chin with regularity. A late flurry from Pimblett made a case for him to steal the round.

Gordon appeared to control the fight for the third round with his wrestling. He wasn't able to mount much offense out of it but he mostly neutralized Pimblett with his clinchwork and takedowns.

Ultimately, the judges saw it differently than many of the analysts watching the fight:

Pimblett's potential to become a star is evident. Not only does he have the exciting style that fans want to see in the cage, but he has the personality to sell himself and his brand. That's why it comes as no surprise he's already co-headlining pay-per-views four fights into his run with the UFC.

The 27-year-old cut his teeth in Cage Warriors, the same European circuit that Conor McGregor came through, so there's always going to be some comparison between the Notorious and the Liverpool native.

For now, Pimblett hasn't reached those kinds of heights. He has a lot to prove in the cage before drawing that kind of comparison from a skills perspective.

UFC president Dana White hasn't been shy about throwing out lofty superlatives when talking about his potential.

"He has that 'it' factor that I always talk about, and you know, and obviously, he's undefeated here in the UFC. If he can keep winning these key fights, this kid will be a massive superstar," White said, per TMZ Sports.

The key to that statement is winning. It's something that Pimblett has had no issues doing thus far. Before picking up this win on the big stage, he racked up three first- or second-round finishes.

With his star on the rise, he'll have to do it against bigger names than Gordon to continue his ascent.

UFC president Dana White said during an interview with ESPN's Brett Okamoto on Thursday that fight fixing has become a pressing issue amid an investigation into betting activity related to a November fight.

"Huge concern," White said, per ESPN's Marc Raimondi. "... Now that there's an investigation and it could be possible that it happened, yeah."

White added:

"In every sport, somebody thinks they're smarter than everybody else when really they're the dumbest guy in the room. And you will get caught -- you will get caught and you will go to prison. It is what it is. If you're that dumb and you're willing to take that risk for money. Ruin your life for money. We can tell people until we're blue in the face. Same thing as steroids, performance-enhancing drugs. 'Don't do it, USADA is testing, you're gonna get caught.' But this is a whole other level. ... If you're that stupid, have fun in prison."

A Nov. 5 bout between Darrick Minner and Shayilan Nuerdanbieke at UFC Fight Night 214 is under investigation after a number of sportsbooks reported receiving "unusual betting interest" on Nuerdanbieke to win via first-round knockout, in addition to the fight lasting fewer than 2.5 rounds, just hours before the match.

Nuerdanbieke, the favorite, defeated Minner via first-round TKO in 1:07.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission has since suspended Minner and his coach, James Krause, pending the results of multiple investigations. In addition, UFC released Minner and announced any fighter who continues to train under Krause would not be allowed to participate in UFC events while the investigations are ongoing.

Krause has been known for betting on MMA fights, even ones he's coaching. During an interview on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani in August, he said that he bets on fights for himself and others.

"I bet every single card just about every fight," Krause said, via Karim Zidan of The Guardian. "I have a Discord [server], like 2,000 members in it, we crush it. Last week, we destroyed it. I take over people's accounts and play for them, I do pretty well. I make more money gambling on MMA than I do anything else."

UFC has since updated its Code of Conduct, prohibiting contracted fighters, coaches and family members of fighters from betting on bouts. Additionally, multiple commissions have paused betting on UFC fights altogether with investigations ongoing.