MANILA, Philippines – Two pioneers of mixed martial arts finally settled their longtime beef inside the cage, but it concluded in controversial fashion.
Royce Gracie thwarted arch-nemesis Ken Shamrock via first-round technical in the main event of Bellator 149 on Saturday, February 20 Manila time at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.
Even though Grace authored the final chapter in his nearly 23-year rivalry with Shamrock, the 49-year-old Brazilian’s victory was marred after he landed a knee to the groin before securing the stoppage 2:22 of the opening salvo.
When Shamrock advanced to close out the distance, Gracie clinched onto his opponent’s neck and delivered an errant knee that was targeted to the midsection.
However, the knee-strike appeared to hit Shamrock’s cup that was not seen by referee Jacob Montalvo.
Gracie clobbered another knee to the temple before he whipped Shamrock to the ground and rained down a series of hammerfists to compel the referee to halt the contest.
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<blockquote class="twitter-video" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">A triumphant return to the cage for <a href="https://twitter.com/realroyce">@realroyce</a>! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Bellator149?src=hash">#Bellator149</a><a href="https://t.co/N0FJbjyMc1">https://t.co/N0FJbjyMc1</a></p>— Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) <a href="https://twitter.com/BellatorMMA/status/700909708803059712">February 20, 2016</a></blockquote>
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"I’m just disappointed. I got upset. It wasn’t Royce’s fault. I really wanted this," Shamrock said in the post-fight interview.
Gracie improves his prizefighting record to 15-2-3 since coming out of retirement to face Shamrock for the third time.
Both men initially crossed paths in the finals of the inaugural Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) tournament in November 1993 with Gracie winning by submission.
Their second encounter ended in an anticlimactic draw as the 30-minute encounter in April 1995 did not have judges to decide on the outcome.
Then-UFC matchmaker Art Davie believes that Shamrock would have been declared the winner as the American submission specialist dominated the stand-up exchanges, giving Gracie a melon-sized welt that closed his eye.
When asked about the dubious conclusion, Gracie answered, “I'm a fighter. I'm here to fight.”
On the other hand, Shamrock downgrades to a professional MMA slate of 28-17-2 and loses his second-straight Bellator outing since returning to active competition. – Rappler.com