Ryan Bader believes that Cheick Kongo quit during their Bellator 226 main event, and he wants the world to see the evidence.
The official result of Ryan Bader and Cheick Kongo’s heavyweight championship bout last Saturday was a no contest after Kongo claimed to be poked in the eye while beneath Bader, but Bader believes the true result of the fight was a submission victory, as the two-weight division champion is convinced that Kongo quit and used a fabricated eye poke to escape his impending doom.
“Looking back at every video I’ve seen, I had my finger in his nose, basically,” Bader told ESPN. “And that’s when he winced and grabbed his eye. I haven’t seen any picture or there’s no videos that they brought forward or anything like that shows my thumb going in his eye.
“And like I said at the press conference, if it did, it was unintentional. We’re in close quarters right there. I was pushing off. And then going back and looking at that, it was right in his nose. And then he posted a picture of his eye being red right there. He was just in a fistfight, you know? I hit him with a good uppercut. So going back, I think they would come out with some evidence and proof that I did get him in the eye, but there hasn’t been any of that.”
There is some evidence and proof available, and it seems to support Bader’s version of events. Bader was sure to make the video widely available to the public on Instagram.
“For me, it looked like he wanted a way out, and that was his way out,” Bader continued.
There have been talks of a potential immediate rematch between Bader and Kongo, but Bader is in no hurry to run it back.
“Right away, I kind of did, but I don’t know,” Bader said of a rematch against Kongo. “I think I need to go back down to light heavyweight. I think I owe it to that division.”
Do you believe Chieck Kongo was really poked in the eye or was he looking for a way out at Bellator 226?
