Julian Erosa is done after Halloween. The UFC featherweight told James Lynch of Fanatics View that his Oct. 31 bout with Jeong Yeong Lee at UFC Vegas 123 (also billed as UFC Fight Night 292) will be the final fight of his career, win or lose.
“I haven’t really made it a big deal, but this will be my last fight,” Erosa said, per MMA Junkie.
The interesting part is the logic. Erosa, 37, explained that he set the date in advance because he knows himself too well. A win would make him want to keep rolling. A loss would make him want redemption. So he took the decision off the table before the cage door shuts. As he put it, “if I win the fight, all I want to do after I win a fight is do it again.”
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The reasons are family and geography. Bloody Elbow, citing the same interview, reported that Erosa’s wife moved back to Washington a little over a year ago to help run his mother’s stand while he stayed in Las Vegas with a one-year-old at home. Erosa said that setup wasn’t sustainable, so the family regrouped in Vegas with a plan to move back once he finished fighting. That move is to his hometown of Yakima. MMA Junkie also reported that Erosa admits the training grind is getting tougher, with younger guys in the gym bringing more energy and closing the skill gap.
“Fighting used to be my life, and now I have other things that are on top of that,” he said. “So, I got to look out for those things, and you know, if I can get out of fighting with my health intact, that’s what I want.”
Three stints, one fan favorite
Erosa’s UFC history reads like a guy who kept getting thrown out of the bar and kept finding a side door. He was a semifinalist on Season 22 of The Ultimate Fighter, won his debut at the TUF 22 Finale in December 2015, then lost at UFC 196 in March 2016 and was released. He punched his way back through Dana White’s Contender Series in 2018 with a head kick knockout of Jamall Emmers, dropped three straight and got cut again. After one regional fight, he was back in 2020 and has stuck ever since.
That current run includes a knockout of Nate Landwehr and a submission of Charles Jourdain, plus three post-fight bonuses. Away from the UFC, he lost a Cage Warriors title fight to Paddy Pimblett. MMA Junkie lists him at 31-13 overall and 9-9 in the UFC, which squares with Bloody Elbow’s count of 44 pro fights, 18 of them in the Octagon. He comes in on a two-fight skid.
Lee brings an 11-3 record into the Meta APEX but sits at 1-2 in the UFC, so this is two featherweights who both need the W. The card is headlined by Renato Moicano against Tom Nolan.
Sal’s take
I’ve watched a lot of fighters promise “one more” and then sign three more, and I’ve lost money on a few of those comebacks, so I respect a guy who writes the exit date down before he knows the result. That’s the most disciplined bet anyone on this card will make. As for the fight itself, a 9-9 UFC veteran who has never once been boring against a 1-2 UFC fighter is my kind of coin flip. I’ll be watching for Erosa’s walkout on Oct. 31 and hoping the UFC has the decency to roll a farewell package for a guy who earned his spot three separate times.
