After retiring twice in a night, Professional Fighters League veteran Chris Curtis is returning to action later this month.
Chris Curtis will be making his return to MMA on January 25 at Z Promotion’s Fight Night 12 in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. He will be fighting Darren Smith Jr, a 20-10 welterweight who has fought in Bellator and ACB.
Curtis retired from MMA following back to back losses in the PFL semi-final back in October 2019. He Retired with a 21-8 pro-MMA record, fighting most notably in the Professional Fighters League. Curtis also had a win on Dana White’s Contender Series in 2018 over Sean Lally. His retirement came after his first fight of the night but since Ray Cooper’s opponent could not continue, the PFL called on Curtis to take another fight towards the end of the night. This could very well go down as one of the shortest retirements of all time, only lasting a total of three months. That, after a retirement that lasted mere hours.
Ending Retirement
Cageside Press spoke with Curtis, who told us that he retired because he was going threw a rough time at that point in his life. Those personal issues coupled with being on a three-fight losing streak led to the decision. It was the first time in his entire career that Curtis had lost three straight fights. When asked what went into his decision to come out of retirement, Curtis simply said, “I just can’t let it end like this.”
Curtis also explained that he had moved across the country to train at Syndicate MMA just before the start of the PFL tournament. The move, he said, has been a learning experience. However, Curtis feels like he is hitting his stride in his new gym under head coach John Wood. At Syndicate Curtis is surrounded by great coaches and great fighters such as Roxanne Modafferi, Tom Lawlor, and Julian Marquez. Very likely a reason why Curtis has opted to return to the cage.
