Las Vegas, NV – 40-year-old UFC bantamweight Raphael Assuncao snapped a 4-fight losing streak when he took a decision victory over Victor Henry at UFC Vegas 62 on Saturday night.
“I was doing some math work over there. I haven’t won a fight since 2018 so….lot of up and downs, but we made it happen,” Assuncao told Cageside Press among other media at his post-fight scrum.
“I made some changes as I mentioned also. New team, new camp, new everything. It worked out well. Very glad.”
Assuncao showed a lot of emotion in the octagon following the victory as he spoke with Paul Felder.
“Just a lot of thoughts you know. My family back home. They’re supporting me 100%. Being out here for two months. Not to mention coming off four losses. Pretty tough you know. This being your job, your career for such a long time, and just having those losses. You start to question yourself,” Assuncao said.
Assuncao described not knowing what the issue really was whether he was having mental or physical issues that contributed to the losses.
“You have to add it all together and figure out a way. Just like life. You’ve got to figure it out and we were able to figure it out. I’m very glad I made the choices that I made this last time and we pulled it through,” he said.
One of Assuncao’s choices was to go to Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas to prepare for this fight. Assucano said that he showed up without calling ahead and letting them know.
“Part of the Vegas decision was the PI. Obviously the UFC PI is here, but you know sometimes the UFC PI is a great physical facility, but you don’t have the mentals. They’re more professionals, they’re super professionals up in there, but you don’t have the coaching. Game planning, you know, you’ve got to do that in the MMA gym,” he said.
“When I came to Xtreme…it was like a bird flying from the sky. Just landed there. I had to previous planning with coaches. I just popped in and they accepted me (with) open arms. They know how I feel about this. Great respect.”
When many other gyms may have turned Assuncao away due to the age and the recent losing streak Xtreme instead took him in right away and got him ready to go.
Assuncao did admit that retirement had been on his mind recently had he lost the fight to Henry or at least made the move up to 145-pounds.
“I’m not being proud about it. I would have probably made the switch to featherweight. I’m not positive if I would have still been in the UFC. I don’t know…5 losses is probably not a good number to be in the UFC. If I decided not to retire, had I lost today, I probably would have moved up in weight class,” he said.
“It worked out good. Had I lost maybe…maybe a retirement from the bantamweight division.”
Watch the entire post-fight scrum with Raphael Assuncao above.
