There were several standout moments from UFC Tampa last night, with arguably the best of the bunch being Cub ‘Killer’ Swanson’s insane third-round knockout of Billy Quarantillo in the co-main event.
The 44-fight MMA veteran was expected to announce his retirement; however, after earning yet another post-fight bonus and a standing ovation from the crowd, it seems like Cub Swanson is torn on whether it’s time to hang up the gloves.
Cub Swanson addresses retirement speculation after insane KO at UFC Tampa
Speaking with Michael Bisping in the octagon following his sensational knockout win at UFC Tampa, Swanson refused to confirm his exit from the sport outright.
“Well, I kind of told my wife that this would be the last one, so we’ll see,” stated the popular veteran as he then addressed the crowd: “I’m kind of old guys, I want to say that I appreciate you letting a 40-year-old dad come out here and entertain you!”
At the post-fight press conference, Swanson explained why he’s torn on the matter; especially since the finish of Billy Quarantillo is as good of a send-off as you could possibly hope for in the UFC.
“My biggest thing for this fight was to not put pressure on myself to perform… I was trying to be fast and loose, paint a picture, and make it beautiful – something that I can be proud of so if it was the last, that I can say ‘Man, I’m happy with that’.”
Swanson shared that he’s “always going to be tempted” by the idea of taking one more fight, but that he’s also got both a family and a growing team of athletes to take care of.
“We’ll see how I heal up; I got three little kids who are getting a bit older now and definitely want my attention more. I’ve got a bunch of fighters on my team, Team Bloodline who I manage and coach, I put a lot of effort into them.
“I’m honestly more excited to be a coach at this point, I love this sport and the nice thing about being on the other side of the cage is that I don’t go home with lumps and bruises.”
Interestingly, whilst Dana White would state that such a flush KO is “the way to go” when it comes to retirement, he’d be more than happy to offer Swanson another fight, if he so wishes.
“It is the way to go, and what’s funny is he says ‘I promised my wife that this would be the last one, but I don’t know we’ll see’… When a fighter wins and especially wins as spectacularly as he did tonight, it’s just so hard for these guys to walk away.
“But to be honest with you, if Cub says ‘I promised this to my wife, I’m going to walk away’ then I’ll be happy for him… If he says, ‘You know what, I definitely got one more in me’, I don’t disagree with him.”
Cub Swanson teases that there’s one fight that could see him stick around
Cub Swanson has been, and will always be a UFC legend – and is one of the few active athletes to have already been inducted into the Hall of Fame; that being for his iconic throwdown with Doo Ho Choi in 2016.
In fact, when Swanson was asked whether a rematch with Choi could tempt him to stick around for one more fight, ‘Killer’ simply acknowledged “That one’s possible.”
“Although he looked amazing in his last fight; that makes me want to sit back and relax a little bit… I just know that the fans would be ecstatic about that one, so that one would be hard to say no to – but we’ll see.”
Choi indeed looked truly sensational in his last fight; a third-round KO over Nate Landwehr at UFC 310.
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“I really don’t have any names,” continued Swanson.
“Like I said, I’ve just been taking it one fight at a time, focused on me and going out there and put on great fights… I try not to look too far forward when it comes to fighting.”
Whether Swanson returns for one more fight remains to be seen, but whatever ‘Killer’ decides to do, he’ll have the support of the entire MMA community behind him.