Mike Shipman calls out judge after split-decision loss to Fabian Edwards: 'I want Ben Cartlidge'
LONDON – Despite all of the bad blood and frayed tempers heading into his co-main event fight with Fabian Edwards at Bellator Europe 6, Mike Shipman came out of the fight with his sense of humor still intact.
Shipman (13-3 MMA, 4-2 BMMA) came out on the wrong end of a split-decision verdict at the SSE Arena, with the scorecards leaning Edwards’ way 28-29, 29-28, 30-27. And despite his defeat, the London Shootfighters man generously gave his time backstage to talk through his performance, and his take on the scores.
When asked his take on the individual scorecards, Shipman immediately latched onto the name of the judge who awarded all three rounds to Edwards (9-0 MMA, 5-0 BMMA).
“Say that name again,” Shipman said after the scorecards were read to him during his post-fight media scrum. “Let me get my Facebook up and see if I can find him.”
When Shipman was told that Cartlidge – an experienced judge and a well-respected staple of the British MMA scene – was “a very nice man,” Shipman joked: “He doesn’t sound like it! How’s his eyesight?”
Then, he pondered for a second, then declared with a grin: “Ben Cartlidge … I don’t want Fabian next fight. I want Ben Cartlidge!”
Looking at the overall scorecard as a whole, which saw just one of the three judges, Dave Tirelli, score the fight in his favor, Shipman laughed: “I see that we have one sensible man out of three!” before admitting that, while he believed he’d done enough to win the fight, he wouldn’t allow himself to be bitter after a close defeat.
“I don’t want to be one of those bitter guys,” he explained. “You always see it after a close decision: ‘Ah, I won the fight, I won the fight!’
“Obviously, I need to watch it back again. I think I won the fight. But, like I said, serves me right for trying to coast that last round. I thought I had it in the bag. That’s not my style, I want to be looking to finish fights right up until the last bell. So in a way, (it) serves me right. (But) at the same time, yeah, I think I won the fight. I need to watch it again.”
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