WATCH: Dana White’s live reaction to UFC 282 judges scoring in favor of Paddy Pimblett

Benny A. King

There’s been quite a bit of press about Paddy Pimblett heading into UFC 282. The once affable Liverpudlian found himself at odds with majority of MMA fans online when he decided to placate his boss and launch a tirade at White’s longtime foe, journalist Ariel Helwani.

Pimblett’s beef with Helwani stems from an incident in which Pimblett’s manager asked for payment if Paddy were to make a guest appearance on the MMA Hour. This is highly unusual and in the world of MMA, no legitimate journalist pays for interviews.

Helwani politely declined and later discussed an incident anonymously on another show. Pimblett’s manager would go on to post a damning note asking MMA guys to seek payment in return for interviews on his social media. Many people put two and two together and Pimblett found himself questioning if Helwani outed his team for unseemly behavior.

Pimblett definitely commandeers the star power – as evidenced by the amount of coverage he’s had all week but sadly his skills are still playing catch up which is why many prominent MMA community members felt like PAddy fell short during clash against Jared Gordon and deserved to lose the decision.

Joe Rogan’s reaction to the decision went viral earlier today. Rogan seemed to be in disbelief and caught off guard by the judges scoring this one in Pimblett’s favor.

Meanwhile Rogan’s longtime boss, Dana White had an entirely different reaction.

Pimblett also had the gall to ask for a Fight of the night bonus from the big boss – for that performance.

Bonuses went to all of the finishers on the card and FOTN went to Darren Till and Dricus Du Plesis.

UFC brass is under additional scrutiny in the fall out from the James Krause betting scandal. UFC is doing everything in its power to distance itself from Krause while the organization might be dealing with a larger systematic problem and Krause is just the scapegoat.

White was quick to say that he’s unaware of how the investigation into Krause is going but highlighted that there are bigger consequences for this type of impropriety – namely federal criminal charges – than getting sacked from the UFC.

“People ask me well, what’s the UFC gonna do?” Dana White said at the post-fight press conference. “We let these guys know not to bet on fights. Do you know what the outcome of this is? If I penalize them, you get cut. They are gonna go to f*****g federal prison, federal f*****g prison.”

“If you are that f*****g stupid and anyone else wants to do it. Knock yourself out. There is not enough money in it to ruin your life, and not go to jail, go to federal prison.”

Many bettors online were disgruntled seeing the peculiar decisions on UFC 282 card – namely Paddy Pimblett’s unanimous decision win and Magomed Ankalaev getting a split draw for what his opponent acknowledged should be a win.

Pimblett was also salty about the public perception saying:

“Control time means nothing. Damage [is what matters]. Look at my face and look at Jared’s. I don’t care what anyone says lad, when you look back at the history books I’ve got the little green marker next to my name. The W. So everyone else can such my a**hole.”