Den 37-årige amerikanske fightern Mark Muñoz förbereder sig just nu inför sin sista match mot Luke Barnatt under UFC Fight Night 66 och tycker det att förberedelserna går bättre än de gjort innan tidigare matcher. Detta är dock ingenting som kommer att ändra beslutet om att gå i pension efter mötet med engelsmannen.
Muñoz senaste vinstsvit avslutades av Chris Weidman 2012. Han segrade sedan mot Tim Boetsch under UFC 162 och har efter det gått med tre raka förluster mot Lyoto Machida, Gegard Mousasi och Roan Carneiro.
Det här berättar Muñoz, via ”MMAJunkie”:
I’m dead set on this being my last fight. It’s a decision I made. For me it’s about my family. These past six years have gone by so fast. My oldest daughter, she’s 15. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in the UFC. It’s been six years. Since I’ve been in mixed martial arts it’s been seven years. So pretty much half her life I’ve been competing in mixed martial arts. I’m getting emotional even thinking about the times and special moments I’ve missed with her. I don’t want to make the same mistake with my three younger children.
It’s a perfect close to my career. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do. It’s a dream come true. I’ve been wanting to do it for a long time and I actually went back there on a few occasions and was promoting the UFC on media tours. I definitely want to be the pioneer that helps MMA in the Philippines and be able to bring fighters along over there. I love the fact that it’s in the Philippines. It’s a dream come true, for sure.
Det finns dock ögonblick i karriären som han är extra stolt över och ett utav de är matcherna mot Boetsch och Demian Maia:
The first one that comes to mind is the Tim Boetsch one. After having an injury going into my Chris Weidman fight and having to sit out for almost a year and gaining all that weight. I was actually depressed, man. I was sad.
I was like that character on Austin Powers movie, Fat Bastard. I ate because I was sad and I was sad because I ate. There’s that. I gained a lot of weight and then I lost it in six or seven months, came back and had the best performance of my life.
Then there was Demian Maia. He was knocking on the door of another title shot and I went in there and executed my gameplay very well and got the victory there. And there was Chris Leben who was known to be tough and never be stopped, and he quit on his stool. Those are the top three I think about with my most memorable fights.
