Matt Mitrione won't mess with weight ahead of next Bellator tourney fight

UNCASVILLE, Conn. – Matt Mitrione heard the boos when he got on the microphone with Chael Sonnen after Bellator 194.

How could he not? The majority of the fans at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn., seemed to believe Roy Nelson (22-15 MMA, 1-1 BMMA), not Mitrione (13-5 MMA, 4-0 BMMA), should have won the main event.

But it was Mitrione who escaped with a majority decision – a pair of 29-28 scores and a dissenting 28-28 draw from a third judge. But the boo-birds didn’t bother him, given he’s moving on to the semifinals of Bellator’s heavyweight tournament.

“I don’t care (that the fans booed),” Mitrione told MMAjunkie after the fight. “I won two (rounds) to one. Anybody who doesn’t think so and thinks that (third) was a 10-8 round, I pieced him up in the first half of the first round.”

Mitrione appeared to win the standup battle in the first two rounds, but Nelson made things interesting with takedowns toward the end of those two frames. And depending on the judges, MMA certainly has seen its share of rounds get stolen by takedowns.

But Mitrione maintains Nelson didn’t do much with those takedowns until the third, when it was clear to even Mitrione he didn’t have an argument to make to win that round.

“He held me down – he does a great job,” Mitrione said. “He has really good top control, he’s really tight on his doubles and he’s strong and has got really good positioning. But I won the first two rounds easily – he didn’t do anything on the ground the end of the first two rounds. He did a really good job in the third.”

Nelson was far from thrilled with the outcome – and Mitrione even said when he tried to offer a congratulatory word or two to Nelson for a good fight, he was “salty.”

Their fight was a rematch from 2012, when Nelson knocked Mitrione out in the first round when both fought in the UFC. But Mitrione, regardless of how and who scored it in what ways, is moving on in the bracket to face either light heavyweight champion Ryan Bader or Muhammed Lawal. They fight in May, so Mitrione will wait quite a bit till he meets the winner.

But even though barring an injury to the winner, Mitrione will be fighting a much smaller opponent, he said he won’t mess with his weight prior to his semifinal fight.

Check out the video above to hear Mitrione talk about Nelson, as well as his weight and the potential to fight Bader or “King Mo” Lawal.

For complete coverage of Bellator 194, check out the MMA Events section of the site.