It has only been a few weeks since Gegard Mousasi lost his Bellator middleweight championship to Rafael Lovato Jr. at Bellator London, and he is already ready to put the loss behind him. Though the sting of defeat lingers, there is always one thing that always inspires one to pick oneself up and get right back to work (Via MMA Junkie):
“They gave me money,” Mousasi said directly. “They said ‘come fight.’ It’s not rocket science. I’m a fighter. If they’re paying me, I fight. (Lyoto) Machida is a big name anyways. I’m going to face him now or later. Lovato is injured. That’s what I’ve heard, so we’re just going to move on.
“It still hurts, but I’m healthy. I’m not injured. When you’re injured, you’re out for eight months or nine months sometimes. Now, I can come back and set everything right in three months, get a title shot again. It hurts, but nothing to do but to look at what we did wrong and come back.”
Gegard Mousasi is well aware of his reputation as a sore loser, a reputation that grew after he claimed Lovato Jr. was on steroids for their Bellator London clash. Mousasi has made similar claims about his Bellator 228 opponent Machida, but if he loses to Machida for the second time, he promises to make no excuses and that the loss will be a case of the better man winning:
“I know when I’m not in it, I (expletive) it up. This fight I’m in it. We’re going to go, and we’re going to fight him. We’re going to leave it all out there. If he’s better, he wins. I’m not going to cry about it. I’m going to go out and give it all.”
As recently as last year, Mousasi stated that he would need extensive drug testing if he were to fight Machida again. It is possible that such arrangements have been put in place to warrant Mousasi’s comfort level in accepting whatever the outcome will be in their upcoming Bellator 228 bout.
Do you believe Gegard Mousasi is a sore loser?
