JAKE HAGER angered the crowd in Chicago after his controversial win over T.J. Jones in Bellator 221 on Saturday night. Hager, 37, a former WWE champion, drew the ire of the vociferous crowd and left the arena to a chorus of boos after his late release of Jones in the first round. 1 Jake Hagan's victory in Bellator 221 was very controversial Credit: AP:Associated Press Hager's finish came at the 2:36 mark of the opening round, but boos rang around when he continued to choke Jones even though he had tapped out in submission. The fight which was part of the main card of Bellator 221 and it saw Hager impose himself on Jones early on. After putting Jones down on the canvas inside the first 20 seconds, Hager was unrelenting. After threatening with an arm-triangle choke, he targeted the right arm again. But Hager's victory was marred as he kept the choke on for longer before referee Mike Beltran kept trying to separate the two fighters. Eventually, Hager rolled off, but it did little to endear himself to the crowd. Despite his win, Hager refused to apologise for his unsportsmanlike behaviour. He said: "I meant no disrespect, but you’re going to have to make me stop. "I thought the referee was him. "You all can boo me all you want, but you’re not in here right now. … I knew once I got on top, he’s not getting up.” latest mma news Pictured MIND GAMES Conor McGregor taunts Poirier with reflective glasses showing his brutal 2014 KO Video 'MAYBE IN THE FUTURE' Lomachenko teases UFC switch after being gifted personalised gear WEIGH TO GO Conor McGregor says he'll make 'championship weight' for Poirier UFC trilogy NUR WAY Khabib Nurmagomedov turned down $100M offer to box Floyd Mayweather, says agent WAITING GAME Jones hints it will be a YEAR before UFC return as he bulks up to heavyweight CON ARTIST McGregor slammed by Abdelaziz as 'high-end prostitute' as bitter row escalates He added: "I'm rock hard right now with emotion. I got a bone." Hager's record in MMA now stands at 2-0. He currently trains at WWE legend and Hollywood star Dave Bautista's MMA gym.<doc-sep>Jake Hager was feeling it after his Bellator 221 win. (Photo courtesy of Bellator) One of the more bizarre MMA fights in recent memory ended with the victor celebrating ... bizarrely. Jake Hager, the Bellator fighter formerly known as Jack Swagger during his time with WWE, needed little time to defeat opponent T.J. Jones at Bellator 221 on Saturday. The 37-year-old won the fight almost two minutes into the first round with an arm-triangle choke to improve his MMA record to 2-0. Of course, very few people doubted Hager would have any trouble with Jones, as Jones is a part-time fighter who spends most of his working hours at a Springfield, Missouri beef plant. Between that hometown and Jones’, um, physique, it was basically the Drederick Tatum-Homer Simpson title fight come to life. So Hager got his win and Jones got the biggest stage of his MMA career. Jones was a good enough sport to help declare Hager the winner once the decision was announced. 💪@RealJackSwagger gets the W tonight via submission. Our main card continues on 📲 @DAZN_USA! and @SkySports in the 🇬🇧. pic.twitter.com/ARQyXqoPxy — Bellator MMA (@BellatorMMA) May 12, 2019 And now we go to the former wrestler reacting to his win in a fight that some outlets had him as a -2000 favorite. 🗣 "I'm rock hard right now with emotion ..." -- @RealJackSwagger. ... Sir, this is a @BellatorMMA post-fight interview 😳 pic.twitter.com/XKClhHXdSX — DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) May 12, 2019 “Y’all can boo me all you want because you’re not in here right now,” Hager said. “I'm rock hard right now with emotion. I’ve got a boner.” The video then quickly cuts to black. Story continues As predicted, Hager was loudly booed as he walked out of the ring, and likely not just because of his heel turn. Some fans had an issue with how long Hager maintained his choke hold on Jones after Jones tapped out (though Jones seemed fine with it after the fight). What a time to be alive. More from Yahoo Sports:<doc-sep>Jake Hager recently spoke with Wrestlezone’s Kevin Kellam ahead of his Bellator fight in Chicago this weekend. Hager, the former Jack Swagger, will face off with TJ Jones on Saturday night’s card. Hager talked about his first professional fight against JW Kizer, saying his background in WWE prepared him to be comfortable and very calm in front of a live audience. Hager says money is a motivating factor for fighting, but he does feel like he can take things to a new level if he continues to be a mainstay in MMA: “I was very calm that night, my team did give me a ton of credit afterwards for the fact that I didn’t need a lot of pep talks and I was just ready to go. I rely on my amateur background a lot, but I also rely on having twelve years of live television experience. It was a little surprising, I thought that I would be thinking about people watching me like [critiquing me] ‘oh, how’d that jab look?’ but I was very focused in on my opponent. Money is a great motivator for anyone, so I go out there and get that money, but it really is something that I’m excited about because this is something that can really transcend into something much bigger if I continue.” After Hager beat Kizer, he says the response from his pro wrestling brethren was humbling and very much appreciated. He says they didn’t always see eye-to-eye, but their support was very heartwarming: “Man, I just got goosebumps when you said that. It was really humbling, and I think it really shows that I have been able to work with some really good people over the last twelve years. To see the outpouring of respect from the pro wrestling fans was awesome, but to see these guys that I’ve worked with—that I’ve not always got along with, but we always worked together and found ways to help each other—to see them come out and stand up for me was really cool and really special. It definitely hit me really hard, right in the heart. It’s very cool when you get to do a job like that, and sometimes you lose sight of what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with. It’s easy to do, but to have that, it was so humbling, and I’ll forever be grateful to those guys.” Jake Hager faces off with TJ Jones at Bellator 221 tonight at the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois. Check out the full interview below: Related: Jake Hager On His Motivation For Saturday’s Bellator Fight: ‘I Have Permission To Hurt This Guy’<doc-sep>
Jake Hager may have made the transition to MMA from professional wrestling, but he’s still got some of that old Swagger in him. On Saturday night at Bellator 221, Hager picked up his second professional MMA win, submitting T.J. Jones with a first-round arm-triangle choke. The bout went about as expected for the former NCAA D-I All-American taking down the meat packing plant worker with ease and roughing him up on the ground before locking in the fight ending choke 2:36 seconds into the first round. That’s where things got hairy though. After locking in the arm-triangle choke and eliciting the tap from Jones, Hager continued to hold onto the choke, even after referee Mike Beltran intervened. Beltran had to pry Hager off of Jones and gave a stern talking to the former WWE champion, who looked nonplussed to be dressed down as such. After the bout, Hager revealed that he held onto the choke because he didn’t realize Beltran was the one trying to stop the bout. He also added some color commentary about just how happy he was with the win, despite the fact that the crowd had turned against him and was booing him heavily. "I'm rock hard right now with emotion ..." -- @RealJackSwagger. ... Sir, this is a @BellatorMMA post-fight interview pic.twitter.com/XKClhHXdSX — DAZN USA (@DAZN_USA) May 12, 2019 “I thought the ref was him,” Hager said. “That’s okay, y’all can boo me all you want because you’re not in here right now. After the last fight, the guy was wrapping around punches on me still when I had it. So I didn’t know. It felt like him, it happened so fast. But you know what, I’m rock hard right now with emotion. I got a boner.” The post-fight interview had shades of another WWE superstar turned MMA heavyweight Brock Lesnar who, after knocking out Frank Mir in their rematch at UFC 100, announced he was going to “get on top of his wife”. Unlike with Lesnar, Hager’s post-fight interview did not seem to endear him to fans who continued to boo him as he exited the cage. It didn’t appear to both Hager though, who was laughing all the way. Hager improved to 2-0 in his professional MMA career and looks to be a marketable commodity for Bellator going forward.