Brandon Girtz Wishes His Cut Didn’t Led To His Bellator 181 Fight Getting Stopped

In an interview with MMA Junkie, Brandon Girtz said that he wished the cut he received during his Bellator 181 main event with Derek Campos didn’t lead to the fight getting stopped. Here are highlights:

On the fight getting stopped: “I thought we were going into a third round. All they kept telling me is, ‘We’re not going to stop it if it doesn’t get worse.’ All I could hear is, ‘It hasn’t gotten worse.’ I’m hearing all the right things. And then third round’s about to start and they’re like, ‘Nope, there’s no third round.’ It was just baffling. I was feeling good and they were telling me there was no change in the cut from the minute it happened to then. I didn’t feel like I was really taking damage into the cut. So it hurt, man. I was ready for a third round. I thought I was doing what I had to do. (The) doctor never said, ‘I’m stopping it’ or anything like that. I think he got out of the ring and then said ‘It’s done,’ because he didn’t want me to plead with him or something. I don’t know. That’s why it was pretty painful. In my heart, I was already going into a third round. And to have it just scrapped like that, it felt really awkward.”

On deciding not to press the issue: “I wanted to, but the dude was back there working on my head. I didn’t really want to get into an argument. I wanted to say I strongly disagree, but the dude was back there stitching up my skull. I kind of just held in. At the end I told him I wish he wouldn’t have stopped it, but that’s all I could say at the time.”

On the people who said his cut looked like the Air Jordan logo: “I chuckled at that. I can see it. It’s nothing that I need to get upset about. It’s definitely one of the biggest scars I’ve ever had, that’s for sure. I represent my scars, man. I’m out here doing stuff.”