Raphael
Assuncao was realistic heading into his fight with Victor
Henry at
UFC Fight Night 212.
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A loss would be his fifth straight within the Las Vegas-based
promotion, and with it would have come with some tough decisions.
Instead, Assuncao blended savvy counterstriking with takedowns and
top control to earn a unanimous decision triumph.
In the aftermath of his first victory since July 2018, Assuncao
admitted that retirement would have been on the table if he had
come up short, or at the very least, a change in weight class.
“To be honest, probably …I’m not being proud about it,” he said
after the fight. “I would have probably made the switch to
featherweight, but I’m not positive if I still would’ve been in the
UFC. Five losses (in a row) is probably not a good number to be in
the UFC. If I decided not to retire if I had lost today, I would
probably move up in weight class just because I feel I was losing
muscle. Just [contemplating] all these things.”
Before a rough stretch that saw him fall to the likes of Marlon
Moraes, Cory
Sandhagen, Cody
Garbrandt and Ricky
Simon, Assuncao was a perennial contender at 135 pounds,
winning 11 of 12 Octagon appearances from 2011 to 2018. During that
time, the Ascension MMA representative defeated notable foes such
as Rob
Font, Moraes, Aljamain
Sterling, T.J.
Dillashaw and Pedro
Munhoz. Now 40 years old, Assuncao may no longer be in the
title picture, but he can go forward in the division he has called
home for the duration of his UFC tenure.
“My team trusted in me. They made sure I had a great weight cut,”
he said. “It’s tough. It’s 20 pounds of water and muscle. But I can
recuperate pretty good. It worked out good. But if had I lost,
maybe I retire from the bantamweight division, yeah.”