Photo by Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images
Watch Rampage Jackson try to attack Ryan Bader at Bellator 226.
Things kicked off last night at Bellator 226 after an anti-climatic main event between Ryan Bader and Cheick Kongo.
The fight was deemed a No Contest (NC) after Bader, the promotion’s reigning light heavyweight and heavyweight champion, landed an accidental eye poke in the first round.
That’s when Kongo’s longtime friend and teammate, Rampage Jackson, stormed the cage and tried to attack Bader. Rampage, the former UFC light heavyweight champ, believes Bader landed the eye poke intentionally.
Check out the video footage below.
Ryan Bader And Rampage Jackson brawl in cage.#bellator234 pic.twitter.com/ypqWI7Kvg6
— Syed Hasnain Shah (@Hasnainshah77) September 8, 2019
Scratch that! Rampage Jackson, who was sitting cage side tonight, went into the cage to have some calm words with the champ post fight. #Bellator226 pic.twitter.com/FdwECnQQxs
— MMA Latest (@MMALatestNws) September 8, 2019
Will ask Scott what happened post-fight. Fans are chanting rampage sucks and booing him as he leaves #Bellator226 pic.twitter.com/jItJJHcM7D
— Amy Kaplan (@PhotoAmy33) September 8, 2019
Bader says Rampage was held back by his dad.
”I was walking out and then there was this big fat guy where the gate opens up and he’s saying something like ‘You did that s**t on purpose.’” Bader said, per MMA Mania’s Ryan Harkness. “Or whispering or whatever. And then he’s trying to fight me. So I didn’t know what was going on. You know, I went through the whole debacle with the non-eye poke, the nose poke. Got a video too here in my pocket. He just comes at me, saying ‘F**k you’ and all that kind of stuff. It is what it is. Walk back into the middle of the cage and say ‘Let’s go then.’ He got held back by my dad, I think. And that was it.”
Although the fight ended in a No Contest, Bader, 36, successfully retained his heavyweight title. The MMA veteran is on a seven-fight win streak and is undefeated inside the Bellator cage.