Niko Price finally got the retirement fight he felt he was owed, and he didn’t waste much of it. The 37-year-old welterweight stopped Leon Shahbazyan with punches at 1:58 of Round 1 on Saturday at UFC Vegas 122 at the Meta Apex, according to the official result posted by UFC News on X.
The win snapped a four-fight losing streak. Aaron Bronsteter pointed out on X that Price and Ribeiro had just ended four-fight skids in back-to-back bouts, with Francisco Prado, also on four straight losses, up next. Somebody in matchmaking had a theme going.
How it went
Price came out swinging. Per Cageside Press, he landed punches on his way to an early takedown and slipped a guillotine once they hit the mat. Then he popped back up and threw some old-school foot stomps, which is about as Niko Price as it gets. A second takedown followed. He slammed Shahbazyan out of guard, and when Shahbazyan turtled and then rolled to his back, Price unloaded. The referee let it go longer than it looked like it needed to, and Price was flirting with punching himself out. But Shahbazyan wasn’t defending, even after the ref told him to fight back, and a few more shots ended it.
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Shahbazyan, the brother of UFC middleweight Edmen Shahbazyan, came in looking for a bounce-back win too, as the UFC noted before the bout.
Why this fight existed
Price first retired in March at UFC Seattle after losing to Michael Chiesa, who retired the same night. That was Price’s 21st Octagon appearance. With the event in Chiesa’s backyard, Chiesa got the farewell and Price didn’t get any mic time at all. Price said the UFC broke a promise by denying him an interview, Bloody Elbow reported, and a few months later matchmaker Sean Shelby called with an offer.
Price described that call to Home of Fight. “Like, We’ll give you a retirement fight if you want.’ I was like, Yeah, of course.’ To me, that was God speaking one more rodeo.”
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He also hedged right there in the same interview. “But hey, if a golden nugget comes up, you can’t turn down a golden nugget. It’s as simple as that.”
After Saturday’s win, with his wife and daughter in the cage, he kept the hedge going. “You might see me again, you never know,” Price told Michael Bisping, per Cageside Press.
Chiesa, for one, is treating it as the end. “Vintage @Nikohybridprice in his final fight in the octagon. Congratulations brother!” he wrote on X.
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The fans weren’t exactly begging for more beforehand. One of the replies Bloody Elbow collected summed it up: “Final fight unless someone calls with a bag, so not final lol.”
Sal’s take
A ten-year veteran who’d dropped four straight gets a first-round finish, a highlight reel and his family in the cage. You don’t get a better exit than that in this business, and I’ve watched plenty of guys cash out on a far uglier slip. The “golden nugget” clause is the part that worries me. A 37-year-old who just ran hot for two minutes and nearly gassed doing it shouldn’t be scanning his inbox for offers. Take the win, Niko. The house rarely pays you twice on the same ticket.
