The main event of Bellator 94 was the season eight light heavyweight tournament final as Emanuel Newton defeated Mikhail Zayats by unanimous decision.
In the post fight press conference, Zayats (21-7) revealed that he suffered an injury just days before this fight.
“I had an injury two days ago and I tried to postpone my fight,” Zayats said via his translator. “Unfortunately, my Russian managers didn’t respond to my calls.”
Later on in the press conference, TheMMAReport.com asked Zayats what the exact injury was and he stated it was to a muscle under his rib.
“I had an injury under the muscle of my rib. Because of this, I could not do many of my technical things.”
The lost by Zayats, snapped a seven fight winning streak with his previous defeat coming in 2011 against Vinny Magalhaes. Bellator MMA Chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney has mentioned the possibility of the next light heavyweight tournament taking place during the Summer Series and Zayats will likely be in that tournament.