37-årige brasilianske tungviktaren Gabriel Gonzaga började fightas i Brasilien 2003 och har sedan dess mött stora namn som Fabricio Werdum, Randy Couture, Shane Carwin, Junior Dos Santos och Brendan Schaub. Under 2010 blev han av med kontraktet med UFC efter två raka förluster.
Efter att ha segrat i en match i Reality Fighting mot Parker Porter fick han ett nytt kontrakt med UFC och såg då ut att klättra uppåt igen då han vann 4 av 5 matcher mot bland andra Ben Rothwell och Shawn Jordan. Han har nu gått med förlust i 4 av sina 5 senaste matcher, senast mot Derrick Lewis via knockout under UFC Fight Night 86 i april och han står nu med 17 vinster och 11 förluster.
Gonzaga berättar nu att han inte har några planer på att återvända till MMA, om han inte blir erbjuden över 100 000 dollar för en match.
Via ’MMAFighting’:
I don’t plan on coming back. I’m taking care of my new gym, Squared BJJ. If I get an offer, it has to be a great offer, or I’ll keep competing in jiu-jitsu against people my age. I’m probably retired already. I will only fight again if there’s a good offer, financially speaking, and I don’t think any promotion wants me.
I don’t fight for less than 100 thousand dollars. I’m 37 years old and I won’t risk my health or waste my time training and suffering for this. I don’t need it anymore. God gave me a good opportunity in life, and I don’t need this anymore.
The UFC is more like a show than a fight sport now. McGregor is the biggest example. I’m embarrassed to be in a sport where McGregor is the biggest idol. If you wouldn’t like your son to be like the biggest idol in your sport, there’s something wrong with it. And I don’t believe anyone would like to have a son like McGregor.
Sports are made to create examples to the society as a whole. If that’s the example, someone that talks trash about people or an entire community, he’s become the example for the young generation entering the sport, they will want to be like this idol. If that’s the idol, I don’t want my son fighting MMA anymore and behaving like that.
Thank God I had a good run in this sport. I wasn’t the best in the world or became the champion in a big organization, but I was always there. I was a top 10 for almost a decade, I have the second-fastest knockout in the division, I have more than 20 fights in the biggest promotion in the world, and I believe I’m tied with Frank Mir with most finishes in the division. I had a good run. It could have been better, but it could have been worse, too.
