Former Bellator MMA Middleweight Champion Alexander Shlemenko suffered a decision loss to UFC veteran Gegard Mousasi in the main event of Bellator 185.
The former champion is demanding that in the future, all Bellator main events should have five rounds.
“In one of the interviews prior to my fight with Gegard, I said I wanted this fight to be a five-round fight,” Shlemenko said to MMA Junkie Radio. “But unfortunately, Bellator doesn’t have such a rule. Their main events are just three rounds if it’s not a title fight. So I think yes, I would love to fight in five-round fights. I think it would be a great idea if Bellator would have main events of five rounds, and if this fight against Gegard was a five-round fight, I’m quite confident Gegard wouldn’t have survived. He wouldn’t have seen the end of the fight.”
Currently, the promotion’s rule set has five round main events for title fights and three round main events for non-title fights.
Shlemenko still believes he earned the judges decision that night against Mousasi, who Shlemenko admits is tough to finish.
“I would like to say Gegard Mousasi is a very strong, very experienced fighter,” Shlemenko said. “That’s why it was really difficult to finish him, to knock him out. But I still think that I beat him and I got robbed by this judges’ decision.”
Bellator MMA President Scott Coker recently stated that the promotion could move to five round fights for all main events in the future.
