Although there have been rumors to the contrary, former UFC title contender Alexander Gustafsson insists he is not hanging up his UFC gloves anytime in the near future.
Following back-to-back losses to Anthony “Rumble” Johnson and Daniel Cormier, the Swedish MMA star recalled being “really pissed” but doesn’t remember ever using the dreaded “R” word to describe his future plans.
“It was just one of those things, when you lose — I don’t even think I actually said ‘retiring,'” said Gustafsson during his appearance on this week’s edition of “The MMA Hour” with Ariel Helwani. “I just came from a loss, I was really close to finishing [Cormier] and close to a win, and I was just pissed. I just lost a fight so I was really pissed, and maybe I said something about, like, maybe I wanted to take a break or something like that. Never retire.”
As Gustafsson continued, he explained that sometimes things like the recent rumors regarding his possible retirement from the sport just happen. In closing, however, he made sure to make it clear one final time that he isn’t “even close to retiring.”
“And you know, you say something, and something else comes out from the media. So it is what it is, but I never considered retiring and it wouldn’t happen, because it’s just one of those things you can’t just say, because it’s so much harder to really do it. This is what I do. This is what I am good at. It’s nothing that you just quit one day, so I wasn’t even close to retiring.”
Gustafsson returned to his winning ways following the two aforementioned losses to “Rumble” Johnson and Cormier by defeating Jan Blachowicz at the recent UFC Fight Night 93 event in Germany.
H/T to MMAFighting.com for transcribing the above Alexander Gustafsson quotes.
