Ken Shamrock on Bellator 149 loss to Royce Gracie: 'I got kneed in the nuts'

Ken Shamrock is not ready to accept his Bellator 149 TKO defeat to Royce Gracie.

According to Shamrock in the post-fight press conference, the loss boils down to one moment – a foul.

"I got kneed in the nuts....I don't know what else to say," Shamrock said.

Immediately after the referee waived off the bout in Round 1, Shamrock protested loudly, pointing his finger and yelling toward Gracie and his corner. After a brief tirade, Shamrock settled down, but he maintains the end came as a direct result of the illegal strike. As such, he believes he should have been given time to recover instead of a clear-cut loss.

"I apologized to Royce and his corner because it wasn't his fault," Shamrock said. "He was doing what he had to do. But I wanted this fight. It bothered me a lot, because I figured that in a main event fight with something like this, you have all those fans there, they're waiting to see us end this our way, and all he had to do was stop and give me a chance to recover, tuck my nuts back in and go again.

"That's all that had to happen. Instead they call the fight? I mean, it was pretty clear to me."

To Shamrock, this means the book is not closed on his series with Gracie. Facing the Brazilian jiu-jitsu master, Shamrock has lost twice and fought to a draw in a third fight, but he feels another chance is deserved following the controversial finish at Bellator 149 in Houston.

"In my opinion, it's not over," Shamrock said. "I wouldn't want to win that way. If it was me, personally, if I had hit somebody in the nuts and they went down – I knew that I hit them in the nuts – I would probably put my hands up and go, 'Sorry' out of reaction, out of a reaction, out of courtesy. Out of a reaction, I would've went, 'Whoa. Sorry, dude.' and given him time to get his five minutes to recover. That's what I would've done."

For his part, Gracie says a fourth fight against Shamrock is up to Bellator MMA President Scott Coker.

"My father did not make fighters. He taught us how to teach, not how to fight," Gracie said. "We fight to prove that our style is the best. It's up to Scott Coker. I thought I was out, and he pulled me back in."