While Awad isn’t happy about losing, one thing that angers the fighter more is the 30-27 score on one judge’s scorecard.
“I did get dropped in the first, I don’t know if it was twice, but I felt like I got back up and controlled the rest of the round,” Awad said after the event (via Fernanda Prates & John Morgan of MMA Junkie). “Second, I felt like I won that round. There was a 30-27 scorecard, I don’t know where the hell that came from. So whoever was that, they need to get fired. It was probably a (expletive) boxing judge. That’s (expletive)d up. Like I said, it could have went either way, but when you have a judge like that, that’s doing something like that, it’s (expletive)d up to the sport. Because the third round, I felt like I controlled the whole round and he did drop me and he was on top. So I felt like that gave him the edge in that round. Each round was close, he did enough to win in the judges’ decisions and came out with the win.”
The other judges scored the encounter 29-28 and 29-28, with both scorecards in favor of Girtz.
There has been no rematch between the two announced by the promotion at this time, but Awad believes things would play out in a similar fashion of they meet again.
“If we had a rematch we’d probably fight the same exact way,” Awad said. “It’s in our blood. We fight. We fight. We’re both fighters. He walks out with a gladiator vest for a reason. The man is a gladiator. And I came to fight, you know? Fighting is in my blood. I’m from Palestine, Gaza. We’re still fighting. Everyone knows that.”
Awad has now lost two straight bouts under the Bellator MMA banner, with the other coming to former UFC Lightweight Champion Ben Henderson at Bellator 208.
