In one of the more controversial finishes in Bellator history David Rickels beat Saad Awad at Bellator 94 to win the Season 8 Lightweight tournament. Many people felt the fight should not have been stopped as Awad was coherent as he lay on the mat in between rounds.

Going into the fight Awad was an underdog from the very opening round. He was not even slated to be in the tournament, but a late injury allowed him an entry. He was riding a 4-fight win streak going into the tournament, and after two quick first round knockouts he pushed it to 6. Awad proved he was worthy of being in the tournament, but didn’t really think much about his impressive win streak.

“I never really noticed it,” Awad said. “My record is still not what I want it to be.”

“Let me keep winning and get into the twenties, like 20 and 5 then I can be a little happier,” Awad continued.

The night of the finals Awad started out very quick in the opening round using his accurate striking to control the first part of the round. Awad then utilized his wrestling to take Rickels down and control him there as well. The fight was going just as planned, except it really was not going as planned.

“I broke my hand in the first round,” Awad said.

The broken hand changed everything. He was not going to let the unfortunate circumstance change the outcome of the fight. His corner gave him instructions to adjust for the broken hand.

“Let’s just wrestle him; you’re winning with your wrestling,” is what Awad said his corner told him. “So just take him down and try not to use it.”

The second round began and Awad was doing just enough with his wrestling and minimal striking to steal the round possibly. Then with just about ten-seconds left in the round everything changed in a flash as Rickels dropped him. Awad gave his account of what happened.

“I remember getting hit and then just falling and thinking shit I got to catch my legs. Then I tried catching my legs and I couldn’t catch them and I was like ‘Wow, I’m hurt’ it was all slow motion to me. I remember falling and I remember hearing the bell as I’m falling and thinking ‘Thank God the bell just rang’ because I just got dropped and then hitting the floor –face planting me you know. I was like cool – the round ended, my hand’s broke, I’m tired as hell and I had one more round before winning $100,000. I can run around and do whatever I got to do, so let me rest catch as much breath as I can or as much air as I can until my coaches come in and then do one more round and walk away with that fat check. I thought putting my hand behind my head was enough to say like ‘Hey I’m chilling you know what I mean like ‘What’s up’. The referee just came up and looked at me and just called the fight. I thought he should have at least warned me, like ‘Get up or I am gonna call the fight’. Like when the bell is done it’s done or something you know- I guess either I don’t know the rules or he doesn’t know the rules I guess, but I think it was a shitty call.”

Watching the fight it did seem odd that the referee stopped the fight with Awad clearly staring back at him with his hands behind his head. It was assumed that the referee asked him some questions to determine whether or not he could continue, those questions were never asked.

“Yeah definitely, I was winded I’m not going to say I wasn’t tired,” Awad continued. “I’ve seen people get pummeled and then the bell rings and the corner has to come and like drag them to their corner put them on a stool and put water on their face to wake them up.”

Some have countered Awad’s claims by simply saying that just by laying there shows you could not continue, because you were to incoherent to stand up. He dismisses these critics.

“If I was incoherent I would have laid there like I was; face down,” Awad said. “But I rolled over put my hands behind my head and waited for my corner to come in, which they didn’t let in right away for some odd reason.”

There have been a lot of controversial decisions made by the referees in recent memory. It has caused some discord and inconsistency when it comes to referee judgement calls. There are times a referee allows a fight to go too long allowing fighters to take more damage than they need, but then there are times when the fight is stopped too early. Awad believes MMA needs instant replay to rectify those instances.

“Since they don’t have it now David Rickels is sitting at home with a fat ass check and waiting for his championship fight that I don’t think he deserves when he lost two rounds and got a bad call and won the fight,” Awad said.

Listen to the entire interview with Saad Awad with the player below, and make sure to tune into Latenight Cageside every Monday night at 10PM ET. Follow the show on twitter @LN_Cageside, and the hosts @kampsmma and @chaseraymond.

We heard weeks ago that Serra was put in the hospital for an undisclosed ailment, and now in an interview with the local press he has come out and pretty much announced his retirement from the sport of Mixed Martial Arts.

Here is the report from Long Island’s Newsday:

Matt Serra was cornering one of his fighters at Ring of Combat in Atlantic City on April 5, when he felt a pain that would put him in the emergency room for four days, lead to the surgical removal of one of his ribs and now, and cause his exit from mixed martial arts competition.

“It’s hard to say it,” Serra told Newsday. “It’s like you can’t say it, even though it probably is true. I would love to put closure on my career with one last fight at (Madison Square) Garden, but at the same time, if that doesn’t happen, I definitely consider myself done. It’s hard to say the ‘R word.’ I might never say the ‘R word.’”

“I really think I’m walking away,” he said. “I’m going to be 39, I just had my rib taken out. I’m having my third kid. My schools are doing well. What am I doing, looking for another pay day? It’s not really for that. I mean, it doesn’t stink, but it’s not really for that. Am I still trying to hold on for the glory? Glory is a drug, dude. I’m telling you, that’s the problem. It really is. I know why guys can’t walk away. I absolutely get it.”

Serra first felt pain in his left arm after a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training session at one of his academies two days before the Ring of Combat event. He figured he had just pulled a muscle.

He came home to Massapequa after the fights. The pain never left. It intensified. Serra couldn’t bend his arm. He couldn’t lift his hand to touch his neck. He got out of bed around 2 a.m. and drove to the emergency room at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola. Tests revealed two blood clots in his arm and another in his lungs.

“Then I got freaked out,” Serra said. “You don’t catch that [and] after the lung, that stops your heart or your brain. Then you’re done. I’m very fortunate to, basically, be here. Sounds kind of morbid. If I didn’t catch that — I was about to go to bed. I’m like, man, something’s not feeling right.”

Serra was put on blood thinners to address the clot in his lungs. He must now inject himself in the stomach with Lovenox, an anticoagulant, every day for the next three months.

The clots in his arm created a significant health issue as well. Serra’s collarbone and first rib were compressing a blood vessel and restricting blood flow, a condition known as thoracic outlet syndrome. Serra had the first rib on his left side removed in early May, a procedure performed by Dr. George Hines, chief of vascular surgery at Winthrop. Hines estimated that Winthrop does about six of these surgeries a year.

“They had to cut me open through my armpit and cut through whatever they had to cut through and get my rib out,” Serra said. “It’s definitely strange and I’m feeling it in there.”

Doctors told Serra he would need six to eight weeks just to recover from the rib removal. A month or so after that, Serra is expected to no longer need to take blood thinners and can resume active jiu-jitsu teaching and training.

“I need my jiu-jitsu, man,” Serra said. “I don’t need to spar. I don’t need to kickbox or box every day. Even if you see me with some pasta, I’m still strangling and arm-locking people at least five days a week and I need that.”

Serra could not bring himself to actually say the word “retire,” but his active MMA career is essentially over. Serra last fought Sept. 25, 2010, a unanimous-decision loss to Chris Lytle at UFC 119. He turns 39 next month and doesn’t want to be one of those athletes who hangs around too long.

“An aging fighter?” Serra said. “You know, it’s like an aging stripper, but not as funny. Not a lot of people want to see that.”

“I know I can be beat by some of these guys, but I know I can still knock some of these guys out and be a threat on the ground. But at the same time, it used to be that the thing that made me happiest was the next fight. Now, I whistle to work going to my schools. I love hanging out with my kids, my family. That’s something you never really anticipate or understand it until you have a family. I love spending time with my girls. I’m a very involved dad.”

“Angelina is already arm-locking me, and I have her teaching Maria. They’re doing it on the teddy bears. It’s awesome.”

In typical UFC fashion, the promotion put together a special “Countdown to UFC 160″ program to help hype this weekends event.

If you missed the show on television you can watch the full episode below:

On Tuesday night’s episode of UFC Tonight, Ariel Helwani reported that sources say the UFC is looking to match featherweight fighters Chad Mendes and Clay Guida against one another at UFC 164.

The UFC has not officially announced the fight, and sources say that it is not 100% finalized.

Chad “Money” Mendes (14-1) and Clay “The Carpenter” Guida (30-13) were originally slated to fight at UFC on FOX 7, but Guida pulled out of the bout with an injury.  Mendes went on to defeat Darren Elkins at UFC on FOX 7, his third consecutive 1st-round KO since losing to current 145-lb champ, Jose Aldo.  Mendes’ streak now has him set to face a man who has never been knocked out in Guida.

“The Carpenter” is coming off his first win in his last three fights, a controversial split decision over Hatsu Hioki.  The win was Guida’s first fight at 145 lbs.  Prior to dropping from lightweight, Guida lost two straight to Benson Henderson and Gray Maynard.  He has been criticized in his last couple fights for lack of performance, so Guida will be looking for to have exciting fight against Mendes.

UFC 164 is set to take place August 31 at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Following the World Anti-Doping Agency’s announcement of a new policy that increases the threshold for marijuana in an athlete’s system, the Association of Boxing Commissions’ medical committee will meet next week to discuss and possibly redraft their own policy toward marijuana.

In an interview with Sherdog.com, Dr. Sherry Wulkan, the ABC’s medical chairperson, said that the medical committee will meet on May 28 to, among other business, draft a revision of the policy toward marijuana to be read to the ABC when their annual conference in August.

“In combat sports,” said Dr. Wulkan, “marijuana may be used for purposes of elevating pain threshold.  There is also a concern as to whether reaction time may be altered with use.  Therefore at present, the 15 ng/mL rule still applies.  Whether [therapeutic use exemptions] should be granted for medicinal purposes will be one of the topics for discussion next week.”

Wulkan’s statements reflect the World Anti-Doping Agency’s announcement that it has increased its threshold for marijuana testing.  The level has been raised from 15 ng/mL to 150 ng/mL, which will account for those athletes who use marijuana for medicinal reasons.

The news of WADA’s decision came shortly after the UFC stripped Pat Healy of his Fight of the Night and Submission of the Night awards from UFC 159- a total that came to $130,000.  The submission victory has also been officially ruled as a “No Contest.”

On the other hand, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) lowered its acceptable level from 15 ng/mL to 5 ng/mL as of August 1.

For the World Anti-Doping Agency, the new policy has already gone into effect; and it will subsequently seek to protect athletes in regard to confidentiality.  In a recent press release, WADA officials stated, “All samples received by laboratories post May 11 will be subject to the new threshold level.  As a matter of fairness and to provide consistency, WADA advises not to pursue cases currently in the results management phase where the reported concentration is less than the new threshold (150 ng/mL).  Also, for any analyses conducted from May 11 onwards, laboratories are requested not to report any THC case result below the acceptable threshold, regardless of the sample receipt date.”

image via ESPN

UFC and FX officials should be pleased with the reported viewership numbers floating around the TV industry in regards to last weekend’s UFC on Fx 8: Belfort vs. Rockhold event.

UFC on FX 8 took place at Arena Jaragua in Jaragua do Sul, Brazil.

The event was capped off with a spectacular main event where, longtime UFC dominator, Vitor Belfort was able to finish the highly touted Luke Rockhold in the very first frame of action.

According to industry insiders, the UFC on FX 8 main-card broadcast drew in 1.3 million viewers. This number is down from the 1.9 million viewers UFC on FX 7 drew in January, but still marks an acceptable rating, for a card, that had few notable fighters booked.

“A lot of people ask me, ‘Did you gain anything from this (TUF experience) or any of that stuff?’ For me, personally, I think generally I am the same person. The publicity is there. The fame is somewhat there. But, I don’t think I’m anywhere close to that. People call me a celebrity and I’m just a regular guy, man. I’m just trying to make it in this sport. I love this sport. I can say that my life is pretty much the same. And I’m just trying to make it, like the rest of these top guys out there.”

“I’ve learned that it’s okay to fail and I also learned that there are a lot of fake people out there. Right now, what’s next for me is making it to the next level. Going on the show, I stepped out of my comfort zone. And, I’ve read that once you step out of your comfort zone, your life begins. And, I think I’m out of my comfort zone again, but, it’s a new chapter, that’s how I look at it. I don’t have anything set. I have a couple of things I have to work on first before I give the guys the heads up that I want to get back in there. Just a few things I feel I have to take care of and once I’m done with that, I’m ready to go.”

Former UFC fighter, Jacob Volkmann received his walking papers after losing to Bobby Greene at UFC 156 and after dropping just two bouts in the 155lb division, he isn’t happy about the release.

As the controversial, Obama hating, lightweight prepares for his WSOF debut he dropped this gem off at Above and Beyond MMA and laid out all the details on how he plans to expose the UFC, their pay practices and bogus healthcare coverage.

“There’s a big chance that I will go to middleweight. It all depends on the fights that I’m going to get. If I’m going to get a big name at middleweight, I’ll probably go down. It’s all about match ups. Let’s say they’re going to give me somebody like Vitor Belfort, that’s maybe a contender. That’s the kind of fight I want.”

“To be honest, I believe middleweight will be much better for me. I will give my opponent less advantages. But at the end of the day it’s all about skills. That doesn’t mean that size advantages always win, but like I’ve said, in the highest level, you don’t want to give the slightest edge to your opponent. Everyone is skilled, everyone has abilities. So that’s why I think middleweight will be much more suitable to my body frame. It’s all about the opportunity. I really want to go for this belt. I believe that style-wise, match-up-wise, I match-up much better against Anderson Silva than Jon Jones, but it doesn’t mean that I’m scared to fight at 205. Jon Jones is skilled and so is Anderson Silva, but at the highest levels, when you’re competing against the top levels, you don’t want to give anybody an advantage. So I don’t want to give a weight and size difference advantage also. That’s why I said middleweight.”

Coming off his UFC debut, former Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion, Gegard Mousasi tells MMAFighting.com that he believes he is a better fit in the UFC’s middleweight division.

In your opinion, is he right?