Jared Gordon is a gnarly dude.
This past weekend, Gordon faced Rafa Garcia in the feature bout of Noche UFC, where he got finished in the third round. Even before the stoppage, Gordon did not appear to be himself, and after the fight it came out that Gordon following weigh-ins, Gordon was hit by a car, spraining his MCL
. It was a shocking announcement and one that Gordon had hopes to keep under wraps.“Going to ceremonial weigh-ins, I was like, ‘F*ck, bro. I’m limping.’ I was limping,” Gordon told
Full Send MMA. “I can’t go on stage limping. So I have to just bite my teeth and pretend like I wasn’t hurt. …
“I don’t need them to intervene and tell me that I shouldn’t fight. I wasn’t going to say anything because then it just looks like you’re making excuses, but Belal Tweeted it, and what am I going to do?”
Of course, once the news broke, fans immediately questioned why Gordon would compete while compromised. The old adage is that no fighter enters a fight healthy, but getting hit by a car 24 hours before a fight is a bit extreme. But Gordon, coming of a knockout win over Thiago Moises earlier this year, had a lot of incentive to stay on the card.
“As a fighter, going into the fight I had good momentum,” Gordon explained. “I just got a new contract, just had a knockout win over a great fighter. I’m going into UFC Noche, I’m fighting on the main card, tough opponent, Rafa Garcia, I felt like I knew I was better than him. This is a great opportunity. I can’t let this one go. I don’t want to let the UFC down, I don’t want to let the fans down. I’ve got 30 people f*cking texting me. My dad, my brother, all my close friends. It wasn’t about the money.
“I make an income outside of fighting. I don’t have to f*cking fight. Looking at the comments, people are like, ‘Oh, these f*cking broke fighters, they shouldn’t be —’ mostly bettors, guys that are losing money on bets. I’m getting DMs, ‘You should tell people when you’re injured so we don’t bet on you.’ F*ck, you think I give a f*ck about you and your bets, you f*cking degenerate f*cking loser.”
And there was another reason as well: reliability. Getting premium position on a high-profile card like Noche UFC doesn’t happen often, and Gordon wanted to make sure the UFC wasn’t put off.
“There’s just so many things for why I wouldn’t pull out of a fight,” Gordon said. “The UFC, they’re like, the day of weigh-ins you’re going to pull out? It would be one thing if it was two months before, ‘Oh, I got hit by a car, I hurt my knee, I’ve got to f*cking pull out.’ Understandable. They have time to find a replacement. But to weigh-in and then be like, ‘Yo, I’m pulling out.’ It just looks bad on you. And I don’t know, you get shelved or you’re looked at like you’re not reliable.
“‘The day of weigh-ins you’re pulling out? Why? We put you on a main card, big card, big spotlight, and you’re pulling out? Alright, you’re not trustworthy.’”
Of course, getting hit by a car the day before the fight would seem to be extenuating circumstances, but Gordon wasn’t willing to risk it.
“I don’t know, and I didn’t even want to test it,” Gordon said. “I didn’t want to f*cking find out if they would or wouldn’t [give some leniency]. And I wanted to fight. I had such a good camp and I felt so good, that I was like, ‘I can do this.’”
Unfortunately, he could not, and his loss to Garcia dropped him to 9-7, 1 No-Contest in the UFC.
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VIDEO STEW
Watch Damon Martin’s full interview with Michael Chandler.
Contender Series highlights from this week.
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Submission Radio with some of our friends.
SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE
RIP Thomas Gerbasi
Movsar Evloev.
Planning.
Preparation.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I’m fairly certain the UFC would’ve given Gordon a pass for pulling out of the fight given he got hit by a freaking car!
Also, don’t talk to fighters about losing money on them. It’s among the cringiest things in the universe. — Meshew
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