Matt Brown retiring from UFC, but won’t exit USADA testing pool ‘just in case’
Longtime Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight slugger, Matt Brown, is calling it a career after his final fight at the upcoming UFC Fight Night 120 mixed martial arts (MMA) event on FOX Sports 1, slated for Ted Constant Convocation Center in Norfolk, Va., on Sat., Nov. 11, 2017.
More on that decision here.
“The Immortal” has no plans to make a comeback, even if he manages to obliterate Diego Sanchez later this fall in “Old Dominion.” That said, the 36-year-old bruiser, who first cut his teeth on season seven of The Ultimate Fighter (TUF), will leave himself an escape hatch “just in case.”
From his conversation with The MMA Hour:
“I didn’t get into this to be a journeyman, or to be in second place, I came into this to be a champion and I got very, very close to that, I think I was one round away from beating Robbie Lawler and getting to a title shot. Being that I got that close, right now, I don’t feel like I have that hunger inside my heart that’s going to get me back to that point and that’s not to say I won’t ever come back one day. I don’t plan on pulling out of the USADA testing pool and I don’t plan on canceling my UFC contract because I’d like to keep that just in case there. But I’m not going to come back unless I plan on making a run for the title.”
United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) requires a six-month testing window prior to any athlete making his or her return from retirement, barring a special pre-fight exemption (like this one).
Brown (20-16) struggled to stay relevant in the second half of his career, going just 1-5 over the last three years and racking up three straight defeats. His knockout loss to Donald Cerrone at UFC 206 effectively eliminated him from the 170-pound title chase, making a “run at the title” unlikely.
And comments like these certainly raised a few eyebrows.
Either way, it’s too early to determine what the future holds for Brown, though I would have to imagine a loss to “The Nightmare” would end this conversation fairly quickly.
