Ange
Loosa insists that an eye poke from Bryan
Battle left him unable to continue in their co-headlining clash
at
UFC Fight Night 239 on Saturday.
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Battle appeared to be getting the better of Loosa before an
unintentional eye poke from “The Butcher” brought the contest to a
halt in the second round. Loosa told the cageside doctor that he
couldn’t see, which led to the fight being declared a no
contest.
Tensions ran high inside the Octagon, as Battle accused Loosa of
quitting, insisting that the Congolese fighter could see with his
eye. “The Last Ninja” has since addressed the situation, and he
claims to still be dealing with his eye injury.
“[The UFC] wants to send me to an ophthalmologist,” Loosa told
MMAjunkie.com. “I have to see another one back
in Florida. We will check and see what’s going on, but I feel like
there’s something inside [my eye]. It’s itchy and hurting a little
bit. We’ll check the eye and see how it goes from there.”
Battle
went off on Loosa at the post-fight media scrum, reiterating
his accusations of quitting. Battle also admitted that he
instigated the altercation by calling Loosa a “p—y” immediately
after the fight ended. While Loosa admits Battle was winning the
fight, he strongly denies having quit. Loosa was more disappointed
about his own reaction during the heated altercation.
“To be honest, he started to fight well. I cannot take that from
him,” Loosa said. “He fought well in the first round. He definitely
won the first round. But I’m not afraid of him. I started slow. In
the second round, I was ready to go. I would never, ever, ever stop
the fight if I’m able to continue. I wasn’t able to see. The only
thing I’m disappointed about me is to lose my cool. For all the
people who know me, I’m always respectful and I never curse like
that. But calling me the way he called me after the fight was just
so disrespectful and I had to react. I just think that’s not the
way things should go in mixed martial arts.”
In addition to Battle, fans have also blamed Loosa for the
anti-climactic end to the bout. However, the fact that most fans
have never fought helps Loosa ignore the negativity.
“The thing I see is that there’s a lot of people online coming
after me, saying like, ‘Oh, you quit, you quit, you quit.’ But
those people, most of them, 99% of them never fought,” Loosa said.
“They don’t know how I felt. That’s what makes me feel like I’m
fine. I’m OK. I’ll be back from that. I don’t take all this
negativity. I have good people around me, and I know what I’m
worth. It’s OK. I’m down today, but I’ll be back stronger.”
While Battle would ideally prefer a ranked opponent, “The Butcher”
said he would be happy to oblige if the UFC wants a rematch. Based
on the way their first meeting was going, Battle didn’t expect
Loosa to want to fight again. However, Loosa believes a rematch is
his only chance to set the record straight.
“The only way to fix that is to run it back… He didn’t win the
fight,” Loosa said. “He didn’t lose the fight. Like I said, this is
unfortunate. This is not the way I wanted this fight to end up.
Yeah, if I was able to fight back, I’d fight back for sure. I
wasn’t expecting to have the fight stop like that. I thought I’d
maybe have more time, to be honest. But my eye was really damaged.
If they give me the opportunity to fight him again, for sure I’m
going to take it.”