Long-time Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Matt Brown recently shared his thoughts on his decision to hang up the gloves.
Brown announced his retirement on Saturday, but X (formerly known as Twitter), he had notified the UFC of his decision some time ago. Even though Brown had reached his decision much earlier, he was clearly deadpan about it until he discussed it with UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby.
Brown was waiting to board a plane at Los Angeles International Airport and was clearly emotional as he told Shelby he was retiring. ‘The Immortal’ admitted he had similar feelings when he recently announced his retirement on social media.
“When I first called Sean Shelby and said, ‘I’m sure this is what I’m going to do,’ I was at the airport at the time,” the 43-year-old said. . MMAFighting.com. “This was a few months ago. I was at the airport and he called me back, so I guess I was at the airport, getting ready to board the plane and sitting in the line. I remember being there, and there were people everywhere. I was at LAX, and I still remember, and I cried a little bit.
“I was like, ‘Damn, I can’t cry in public.’ What if someone recognized me? But it hurt so bad, dude. It was decided in my mind. I don’t think it really hit me until I actually said it, and then, as a mother, I burst into tears. And I think it only happened once. And it was very similar. [Saturday] when you posted it. I said, “Damn, this is outrageous.” It seems surreal, bro. It’s hard to believe because a part of you dies. ”
Brown last fought in May 2023, when he knocked out Court McGee in the first round. Brown was then offered a match against Max Griffin, but “The Immortal” was reluctant to accept the offer, which partially influenced his decision to retire. Brown is 17-13 in his UFC career and has the second-most knockouts (13) in promotion history behind Derrick Lewis (14). Brown’s nine bonus-earning performances are a UFC welterweight record.
