ABU DHABI – Jared Gordon is no stranger to overcoming adversity.
Gordon (16-4 MMA, 4-3 UFC) picked up a dominant unanimous decision win over Chris Fishgold on Wednesday at UFC on ESPN 13, but the journey to get to the fight might have been his toughest battle.
It started with family tragedy when, 10 weeks into pregnancy, his fiancee had a miscarriage. She then tested positive for COVID-19, and Gordon had to pack his stuff and leave the apartment to isolate.
Gordon’s journey to Abu Dhabi didn’t come without numerous scares, either. After testing negative in coronavirus-blighted Florida, he hopped onto a flight to Las Vegas. However, he boarded that flight without his team after all of his cornermen from Sanford MMA tested positive for COVID-19.
Gordon then tested negative once more in Las Vegas, which allowed him to travel to Abu Dhabi. He had a little extra weight to cut than usual as he was dropping back down to 145 pounds for the first time since his UFC debut in 2017.
Upon arrival, Gordon was tested again and was later told that he had tested positive for COVID-19. After everything he went through, it was all about to be taken away from him, but luckily for Gordon, it was later identified as a false positive.
Finally, Gordon was able to focus on cutting the rest of his weight, with his friend and managerial stablemate Paul Felder coming to the rescue by leaving the commentary booth to corner him. Xtreme Couture head coach Eric Nicksick also stepped into the breach, as did ONE Championship featherweight contender and grappling ace Garry Tonon.
With a makeshift corner team advising him between rounds, Gordon delivered a dominant performance to claim a hard-earned win after an emotional time for the 31-year-old. Now he just wants to look ahead and sees a more successful future fighting back in his optimal weight class of featherweight.
“I want to fight,” Gordon told MMA Junkie. “I finally got to the division that I’m supposed to be in – back to the division after three years of injuries. I had eye surgery in November. I had a plate put in my face. I won the fight before that but the fight before that, I got my hamstring pulled off my pelvis in my fight against Joaquim Silva. I did well when I first got to the UFC. My two first wins were dominant, and I missed weight my first fight, so they made me move up.
“So finally, after three years, I’m able to go back to the division that I belong in. (At) ’55, I’m fighting out of my weight class. When the guys start getting really big and really technical, where do I find the advantage? Today I was the bigger guy, and I was clearly the more technical guy, so I had a dominant performance, and that’s how it should have been. I have to improve, but I’m ready to do that.”
After nightmare two weeks, Jared Gordon says he's ready to make run at featherweight
