After a ‘Fight Of The Night’ decision win over Matt Brown on Saturday night, Bryan Barberena revealed to reporters that it was the final fight on his current contract with the promotion.
Now Barberena is hoping that the big win will help him secure a new deal with the promotion, but if not the 32-year-old has claimed that he will retire from the sport.
“This is the last fight on my contract,” Barberena said at the UFC on ESPN 33 post-fight press conference. “I haven’t been open about that, but this was the last fight on my contract. The UFC didn’t say anything about re-negotiating. I tried asking about it. Dana White, let’s talk. I’d love to keep fighting, I’d love to keep putting on shows.
“I don’t want to fight anywhere else. If this is it and they don’t want me no more, that’s OK. I’ll hang them up here. I should’ve left the gloves in the cage if that’s the case. But if not, I’d love to keep putting on shows.”
Saturday night’s win was Barberena’s second in a row inside the Octagon and leaves him with an overall 8-6 run in the promotion spanning well over seven years.
Other promotions would likely be willing to take on Barberena if the UFC didn’t want him, but ‘Bam Bam’ has made it clear that this is the only promotion he is willing to consider signing a deal with at this stage in his career.
“Yeah, absolutely – I’d be done,” Barberena said if the UFC deal didn’t come to fruition. “Me and my wife talk about this a lot. The UFC is where I want to be, that was the goal all the time. I’m excited, I love being here. They treat me well and I love being in front of these fans. It’s the biggest organization out there. It’s the best organization out there as far as I’m concerned. If they don’t want me to come out and put on shows anymore, I’d go hang them up and spend my day at the farm with the family and building that.”
And after beating Brown, Barberena hopes that landing a new contract might pave the way for another revered veteran of the division, Robbie Lawler.
“These are the kind of matchups I want. They excite me and they excite Matt Brown and everyone. … I honestly would love to fight Robbie Lawler. I think that would be an awesome matchup. He’s one of those guys who brings it and I’m a fan of him. That would be an awesome matchup. There’s tons of other matchups out there of guys who come to throw down and bring it.”
