Bryce Mitchell Scraps Retirement Idea
Today in an interview with ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, number 11 ranked featherweight Bryce Mitchell clears up retirement rumours after first loss in the UFC to Ilia Topuria. Now 15-1.
This isn’t the first loss he has been handed he claims, but it is the first time we saw him get dominated in such a fashion.
Image courtesy of: MMA Junkie
Bryce Mitchell who claims he was very emotional post UFC 282 says that he was just in a drunken stupor.
Bryce said post UFC 282,
“Everything is meant to be and I’m just going to move on with my life and take all the energy I spent doing MMA, and I’m going to put it into something else.”
But he admits that he no longer feels that way, telling Brett,
“I was really mad, I was being hard on myself, I swear on my life If that’s the best I could do, I would retire, cause that was shit but I know I can do better”.
Furthering his thoughts more on the statement saying,
After thinking about it, and knowing how much better I could have done, yeah I got a different opion on the fight.
Bryce said that he had the Flu going into this fight, as well many other “circumstances” as he said, and did not have the energy, getting tired minutes into the first round.
According to him, it seemed this fight was taken because he needed the money, putting his health second.
“Honestly you know I had a couple thousand bucks in my bank account and they told me if you don’t take this fight we are not finding you one until February. They said we are booked. And I said you know what I don’t wanna live on a couple thousand bucks until February”
Mitchell reconsidering his haste reply to the UFC thinks that maybe he should have held out until February.
Bryce says that if he had more than a couple thousand in his account he would have never taken this fight and was sure he was going to win.
Saying all this, Bryce does not want to discredit Topuria saying,
“That dude is good, even if I had have gone in there healthy it would have been a good fight, I still think I’d have won, that guy is good, he is very good. I’m not discrediting him, I’m just telling y’all the truth, and the truth is people deserve to know if they pay money to watch me fight they deserve to know I was not at my best and the next time they pay to watch me fight I will do better”.
The interviewer, Brett tried to give Bryce a lay-up, saying he is not making excuses because his circumstances are very understandable on why he took the fight and not pulling out when sick because of money reaons.
But Bryce, half smiling, says that he is making excuses telling the interviewer,
“I’m kinda making excuses but my excuses are backed by science.”
Strange to hear science coming from a flat-earther, but that is neither here-nor-there.We love Bryce.
While still being confident in his skills, he was very noble toward Topuria, expressing that all fighters are dealing with issues.
“I’m not saying that not of my opponents aren’t good, they have their injuries too, they have their sicknesses too, they’re dealing with financial isues too. I’m just telling you my side of the story”.
Mitchell says that he wasn’t going to starve if he didn’t take the fight and all his bills would have been paid and is not trying to complain about the finances but says,
“To say it [finances] wasn’t a factor, that would be a lie.”
Catch The Full Interview below:
Video courtesy of: ESPN MMA
