Bellator 110 ended with a bang last night as King Mo and Rampage Jackson had an in cage altercation following the main event. Earlier in the night, both men defeated their respective opponents to make it to the Bellator Light Heavyweight tournament final against one another. During Rampage’s post-fight interview, King Mo was brought into the cage in order to promote their upcoming fight. Rampage, still on the microphone, stated that King Mo was his next victim, which led to a heated altercation in the middle of the ring that needed to be separated.

Immediately following the scuffle, there was speculation that the scuffle was staged. The Mohegan Sun’s regulatory head, Mike Mazzulli, then seemingly told a Sherdog reporter that the commission knew about the scuffle before hand.

Jack Encarnacao of Sherdog asked Mazzulli to clarify his earlier comments, and here is the transcript:

I followed up with Mazzulli on the questions raised.

What did they Bellator you to expect?

Mazzulli: Basically what they stated, they said, as you know, both fighters get very excited after the fight, and words may be said. Nothing was discussed about a fake fight and being ready to stop it, that was absolutely not the case. The case was that the two fighters get very excited, and if something occurs, we’re going to stop it, but I just wanted to give you a heads up that they’re very emotional after each win. There was nothing about a setup or any of that, absolutely not.

I regulate combative sports. When it comes to the production of the TV and everything, that’s not for me to say unless there’s a safety issue with the fighters. And if something did occur to the point where I felt it was excessive, a sanction would definitely have happened. But I was not told they were going to yell at each other, any of that. I was just informed that both fighters get very – I guess you want to say, “pumped up” – and are very verbal, and everyone knows that they are.

It seems that Mazzulli’s initial comments were taken out of context and misunderstood. Mazzulli denies that the commission knew an altercation would happen, but they were informed that the two men were going to be in the cage together.

Do you think the altercation was staged? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter @SchlinskMMA.