Erosa Calls His Retirement Final After Opening-Seconds Scare

Julian Erosa's retirement fight ended with a first-round TKO of Jeong Yeong Lee at UFC Vegas 123, and he says the exit is for real.

Why he is done

Erosa lists what he has done in the sport: Contender, The Ultimate Fighter and about ten years in and out of the UFC. He calls it a long journey. He allows that he could win more fights, but says he has proven himself. In his words, "To go out on something like that means more than making some more money."

He is still on the high of the win. He expects contentment with how it all turned out to settle in after some weeks.

A scare in the first seconds

The win did not come cleanly. Right after the glove touch, Lee came with a left hook that caught Erosa off guard and wobbled him. Erosa said it hurt but not severely, and it was not a knockout connection.

His corner told him afterward that Lee had cheap-shotted him. Erosa watched the fight back and called it kind of cheap, though he is on the fence about it. He still put the blame on himself, because a fighter has to protect himself at all times. He said Lee seemed jittery.

How the fight ended

Erosa has had 45 professional fights and 10 amateur fights. By his count, a right hand of his has dropped an opponent only twice in all of them. He said he knew it was over.

He also said he would have taken a guaranteed but boring win beforehand. Even so, he finds a fight with some adversity more satisfying as a last one.

Washington, snowboarding and running

Erosa is going home to Washington, where he will help run the family business. Free of the training grind, he also wants to try snowboarding and running.

Our View

Erosa pointed to a long career and a win to close it as reasons he feels done. He did not rule out that he could win more fights, so only his own decision keeps the retirement firm. Whether he stays away will show once the post-fight high fades, in the weeks he says it takes to feel content.

Source: BJPenn.com