Abdul Razak Alhassan is still fuming in the aftermath of his no contest with Cody Brundage at UFC on ESPN 59, and he wants to run it back.
After Alhassan (12-6 MMA, 6-6 UFC) rocked Brundage (10-6 MMA, 4-5 UFC) early in the first round of their middleweight bout on Saturday at Ball Arena in Denver, he followed up with an onslaught of strikes, two of which were deemed as illegal and to the back of the head by referee Dan Miragliotta.
Brundage was unable to continue after his five-minute recovery period, and the fight was ruled a no contest. That came much to the dismay of Alhassan, who insists there was no more than one illegal shot in the sequence, and said Brundage turned his head into it while fishing for a desperation takedown.
“I’m still pissed off about it,” Alhassan told John Morgan of Grind City Media. “Of course in that kind of situation where he’s turning and I’m trying to get my shots in – and even when I watched the video, it was only one time. And even that one was questionable when it hit him. I feel that guy, sorry for my curse, he just became a p*ssy. He decided, ‘I don’t want to fight any more. I don’t want to do it.'”
Alhassan, 38, claims that he saw one of Brundage’s coaches from Elevation Fight Team urge him to choose not to continue during the recovery window, but not identify who. He ultimately thinks Brundage was trying to work himself into a disqualification win, citing what happened in his September bout with Jacob Malkoun at UFC Fight Night 228.
According to Alhassan, he is contemplating filing an appeal with the Colorado commission to have the no contest overturned to a win, but has not made any final decisions.
More than anything, Alhassan just wants to fight, and he will take any opponent on any date. He explained pre-fight that he has much rage to get out of his system after personal issues, and if he can get a rematch with Brundage, he has no shortage of motivation.
“I really want to contest this so bad (with the commission), but even if I don’t contest it, I want him back right away,” Alhassan said. “Let’s run it back and put a f*cking hole in his face.”
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