Gegard Mousasi Vows to Retire if He Can’t KO Rafael Lovato Jr. in Rematch

While Gegard Mousasi may have lost a majority decision – and his middleweight title – to Rafael Lovato Jr. at Bellator 223 this past June, he doesn’t hold the Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace in high regard.

After Mousasi took a closely-contested split-decision triumph over Lyoto Machida at Bellator 228 on Saturday night, he turned his attention to a rematch with the promotion’s reigning middleweight champion. In his in-cage interview, Mousasi virtually guaranteed Lovato Jr. would be next on his agenda, and he took things one step further when speaking to assembled media following Bellator 228.

“Next fight I’m going to kill him,” Mousasi (video via MMAFighting.com). “I swear to God if I don’t knock him out, I don’t count it as victory. Because I know what I can do and he will die, literally. You will see. I will knock him out 100 percent. I guarantee you that.

“If I lose [the rematch], I’ll retire I’ll promise you. I’m not kidding, because I’m not trying to sell a fight. I know what I can do. Next fight will be extra special because I’m going to be an extra special boy.”

The first fight with Lovato Jr. was a closely-contested affair, but it was the American’s grappling and control that ultimately earned him the nod on the judges’ scorecards. Mousasi has not been shy about accusing his former foe of using performance enhancing drugs, and he reiterated that claim on Saturday night.

“That guy looked like a horse,” Mousasi said. “You guys are reporters but you don’t even report on that. You can see a difference with a picture of him and then he looked like he’s muscular when he’s 35. You guys can watch, you should report that. Take a picture next to each other, it’s day and night difference. That’s not even a little bit of steroids. That’s like monkey steroids. You guys go check it out. I can post pictures for you guys if you want.

“He looked twice as big at the weigh-in. His nipples were hard like a woman. Watch it, I’m not kidding. I’m not trying to be funny. He could have given milk to babies.”

Regardless, Lovato is the only person to defeat Mousasi in his last 10 professional outings. During that run, the Armenian-born Dutchman has bested the likes of Machida, Rory MacDonald, Chris Weidman, Uriah Hall, Vitor Belfort and Thiago Santos, to name a few. Mousasi still laments being unable to put Lovato away when he had him reeling at Bellator 223.

“Everybody knows he was on steroids but people call me bad loser. Maybe I am a little bit but I should have beat him anyway,” Mousasi said. “My head wasn’t in it.

“I hurt him in the third round, I hurt him in the fourth round. I f—ked up myself so I’m blaming myself but the juice helped him also.”