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Trouble? Don’t talk to Charlie Ward about being in trouble.

Sure, it might’ve looked like Ward (5-3 MMA, 2-0 BMMA) was in danger when Martin Hudson (4-5 MMA, 0-1 BMMA) went for a rear-naked choke early in their Bellator 200 preliminary bout this past Friday from The SSE Arena in London.

But …

“I was never in trouble,” Ward told reporters, including MMAjunkie. “Nobody really submits me off me back. In trouble, no. For a minute he was more tearing me gums than anything. He never got it under the neck. For it to be in danger, you’ve got have the hand in under the neck. It was never near the neck. It was just across me face.”

And so, after getting out of that predicament, Ward didn’t waste much time in ending the fight as the Irishman came away with a TKO win via punches at the 2:23 mark of the first round. That’s now two stoppage wins in a row for Ward under the Bellator banner to follow two straight knockout losses in the UFC.

Ward seemed a bit on edge – or just fired up about his win – backstage during his session with reporters. Ward, who trains at SBG Ireland alongside Conor McGregor, answered questions for a few minutes and then closed out his session by calling out rapper 50 Cent.

50 Cent, who’s real name is Curtis Jackson, was in attendance for his second consecutive Bellator event as he’s continued to tease some kind of business relationship with Bellator President Scott Coker – and hint at wanting to fight in the cage.

Which, if that’s the case, then Ward would like to volunteer his services. His callout seemed to be, at least in part, motivated by previous beef between 50 Cent and McGregor.

“50 Cent is running his mouth,” Ward said “He’s here tonight. He’s saying he’s a promoter. He’s saying he’s a fighter, he’ll fight Conor in the street. He’ll fight this, that. He’s more my stamp – 185.

“If he wants to come into Bellator, I’ll fight him. That’s it.”

That really was it. He walked away from the podium after that.

You can check out Ward’s entire interview, which is worth the time, in the video above.

And for complete coverage of Bellator 200, check out the MMA Events section of the site.