Julian Erosa expects Saturday to be the last time he fights. The featherweight told Cageside Press that his UFC Vegas 123 prelim against Jeong Yeong Lee at the Meta Apex will probably be the final fight of his career. It will be his 45th official professional bout and his 19th in the UFC, spread across three separate runs with the promotion.
People close to him already knew. Everyone else found out this week, and Erosa had clearly thought about where it should happen. He and his wife moved to Las Vegas to chase the dream, and the two of them decided it would be fitting to end it there, in the city where the whole bet was placed.
The building matters too. Erosa’s third shot with the UFC came in 2020, during the pandemic, inside the same venue back when it was simply the Apex. “This is where I got my third opportunity fighting Sean Woodson at the Apex,” he said. He joked that he has fought in plenty of big-arena settings and is curious to compare the renovated room with the old version, “when there were only 250 seats.” This time there will be an actual crowd, along with the coaches and teammates who got him here.
Why now
Erosa said several things went into the decision. He has a two-and-a-half-year-old son and a wife, and he pointed out that there are other ways to earn a living and other projects his family plans to move on to. He was clear about which factor weighs most. He wants to stay sharp for his son and, eventually, his grandkids. “When I’m 60, I don’t want to forget what his name is and that kind of stuff,” Erosa said.
The thought first took hold after his win over Darren Elkins a couple of years ago. Erosa later watched Elkins in his own retirement fight and said the result wasn’t what stuck with him. Elkins could have knocked his opponent out, Erosa said, and it wouldn’t have changed how the postfight interviews felt to him. He described them as seeming “a little, I don’t know, just sad to a certain degree.”
That picture of a veteran staying one fight too long settled it. “I wanna retire from fighting. I don’t want fighting to retire me,” Erosa said.
The UFC Vegas 123 card starts at 5 p.m. ET on Paramount+, with Erosa and Lee on the prelims.
The Woodson fight is the detail I keep coming back to. A guy from Washington got cut, worked his way back, got his third chance in an empty room during a pandemic, and then turned it into enough UFC fights that he now gets to pick the exact building and the exact moment to leave. Most fighters never get to make that choice. Erosa is making it at 45 pro fights while he can still remember every one of them, and his son will get to hear about all of them.
