Saad Awad Says He Tried to Finish His Bellator 91 Fight Quicker
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 03.01.2013
Lightweight fighter talks about his win...
Saad Awad spoke today with MMAjunkie about his win over Will Brooks last night at Bellator 91 and more. Check out the highlights:
On the win: "To be honest, I tried to stop the fight a little sooner. I didn't want to hit the dude that much. I mean, Will Brooks is an awesome guy. He's really nice, and I'm not there to really hurt people. I know what happens when you get knocked out and people keep pounding on you – it can cause a lot of damage. I knew he was hurt from the get-go, and I was kind of letting off a little bit, and the referee wasn't stopping it, so I hit him more. Then I let off a little bit and then was like, 'All right. I guess I'm going to keep going until the referee stops it.' Eventually, he did stop it."
On his debut for Bellator being a loss: "My first fight in Bellator, I chased a guy down and let him get back up about four times. I paid for it because I didn't pounce on him like I should have. When (Brooks) was holding my leg, I was hitting him and I knew he was out. I finally decided to pull my leg up and he just laid there. I looked at the ref and was like, 'OK. F---. Here we go again. What if I gas myself out trying to put him out and have to go through this repeat of what happened before?'"
On getting a slot in the tournament: "It felt like I was getting old fast because it felt like I wasn't getting anywhere. If you're not in the big shows making money, (your career) gets going by fast. You're getting old fast, your body's getting beat up. You start thinking about your career and how long you're going to do this for on small shows, getting paid change and taking so much of a beating. I know it's only been two months since stuff started to change, but I'm excited to see where I can take it from here."
On retirement thoughts: "I did before a year or two years ago when I would lose fights, or when I couldn't get fights or was getting fights on small shows. Then I started really thinking about it. And I thought to myself that I've put way too much time into it to walk away now. I know what I'm capable of doing and I know how much I put into the training. I told myself to hit it hard for a while and see where it takes me. If it goes good, it goes good, and if it doesn't, then I've really got to start rethinking it. Thank God it finally started paying off."
