Longtime
Ultimate Fighting Championship veteran Matt Brown
recently shared his feelings about his decision to hang up his
gloves.
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While Brown announced his retirement on Saturday via X (formerly known as Twitter), he had informed
the UFC of his decision a while back. Despite having arrived at the
decision much earlier, Brown was admittedly impassive about it
until he had the conversation with UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby.
Brown was waiting to board a flight at Los Angeles International
Airport and was admittedly overwhelmed with emotions while
informing Shelby of his retirement. “The Immortal” also admitted to
feeling similarly emotional while recently announcing his
retirement on social media.
“When I first called Sean Shelby and told him, ‘I’m pretty sure
this is what I’m gonna do,’ I was at an airport at the time”, the
43-year-old told MMAFighting.com. “This was a few months ago. I
was at an airport and I think he returned my call, which is why I
was at an airport. I remember sitting there in line getting ready
to board the plane and there’s people all over. I was at LAX, I
still remember, and I shed a little tear, bro.
“I was like, ‘Damn, I can’t be crying in front of people. What if
someone recognizes me? But it hurt bad, man. It was set in my mind.
Like I didn’t have any real feelings about it until I actually said
it. And then I hung up the phone and yeah, I shed a motherf—-ing
tear, man. And I guess I do have tears in there somewhere, that was
one time. And it was very similar [Saturday] when I posted that. I
said, ‘Damn, it’s f—ing over man.’ Like it’s surreal, bro. It’s
hard to believe because a piece of you dies.”
Brown last fought in May 2023, when he knocked out Court McGee
in the first round. While Brown was then offered a fight against
Max
Griffin, “The Immortal” wasn’t excited by the offer, which
partly influenced his retirement decision. Brown went 17-13 in his
UFC career and has the second-most knockouts (13) in the
promotion’s history, only behind Derrick
Lewis (14). Brown’s nine bonus-winning performances are a UFC
welterweight record.