Julian Erosa is retiring. The 35-year-old featherweight told BJPenn.com’s Cole Shelton that his prelim bout against Jeong Yeong Lee this Saturday, Oct. 31, at UFC Vegas 123 at the Apex will be the final fight of his career. He said the result won’t change that.
“I don’t want fighting to retire me; I want to retire from fighting,” Erosa said.
He said the decision had been sitting with him for a while. Part of what pushed it forward was watching Darren Elkins in interviews around his last fight. Erosa said he heard Elkins talk and didn’t want his own exit to look like that. “I don’t want to be 42, 43 and not have my wits about me,” he said.
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The other part is at home. Erosa has a son who is two and a half, and he said his health is now what matters most to him. “I love fighting, but it is a short-lived career, and I am satisfied with what I’ve done; I am content with moving on. I’m ready to move on.”
Saturday will be Erosa’s 19th walk to the Octagon. He has had multiple stints with the promotion, the kind of career that gets built through cuts and comebacks rather than hype. That long road gives the moment some weight.
The last opponent
Lee comes in on a two-fight losing streak, and BJPenn.com noted he could be fighting for his roster spot. Erosa admitted he didn’t know who Lee was when the matchup came through. He said the UFC has too many fighters to keep track of all of them. He has watched enough since then to expect a firefight. “He’s a kid that likes to bang it out in the middle of the Octagon, so there won’t be a lack of action,” Erosa said.
Erosa has always been a fan-friendly fighter with a lot of chaotic nights on his résumé. This time he says the win matters more than the show. He was blunt about fighters who talk about retirement and then shrug at the result. That isn’t him, he said. He wants to leave “with my gloves in the cage and my hand raised.” He also explained why a loss won’t send him back for another try. “If I lose, this will be my last fight as well, because if I don’t, it will always be one more fight. Win, lose, or draw, this will be it.”
He even has the finish picked out. Erosa said some wrestling and grappling would help him against Lee. He thinks he could win a boring fight if he had to, though he’s never been in one. Then he laughed off his own plan in the same breath: “I would like to go out and choke him out, but maybe we just stand and bang it out.”
My take: fighters almost never say the “win, lose, or draw” part out loud, and that’s what makes this announcement believable. Erosa looked at a veteran near the end of his career, looked at a toddler at home, and drew the line before anyone else could draw it for him. Watch the Apex prelims on Saturday. If Lee wants to stand in the pocket, Erosa’s last fight will probably look a lot like the rest of them.
