Miami — “I guess there are fairy tale endings,” Cub Swanson exclaimed after finishing his career on a high at UFC 327 in Miami on Saturday.
Featherweight Swanson (31-14), a longtime fan favorite fighting as a pro since 2004, fought in the WEC, later absorbed into the UFC to bring in the lighter weight classes. He’s a member of the UFC Hall of Fame thanks to his 2016 classic against Doo-Ho Choi. His retirement bout, against Nate Landwehr, came over a year after his win against Billy Quarantillo last time out.
Surprisingly, Swanson looked better than ever at age 42 on Saturday. He came out aggressive, yet picked his sports, piecing up Landwehr perfectly. Multiple knockdowns arrived before all was said and done inside of a round.
Announcing his retirement fight in advance might have led to a slightly more emotional Fight Week than normal for “Killer Cub.” During media day, the soft-spoken fighter even said outright he didn’t want to talk about his retirement anymore.
“I was kind of hitting those normal emotions, but I think sometime yesterday was probably my worst time where I was like ‘man don’t go out there and get beat up.’ So, I just put pressure on myself like always.”
Speaking with media outlets backstage at the Kaseya Center, Swanson noted that “fighting is painful. I’ve been able to have a high threshold of pain for a long time, and be able to ignore it and tell myself ‘you’re good, you’re good.’ But I’m over that part.”
Having accumulated lots of knowledge throughout his career, Swanson added “I’m better off sharing that knowledge with the next generation. I’m 42-years old, sometimes I sit back and like, ‘what are you still doing dude? Get a job, do something else.'”
While some fighters retire and return, retire and return, rinse and repeat, don’t expect to see Cub Swanson return to fighting. His decision, it seems, is a little more final than most.
“Yeah. I’ve had plenty of time to think about it. I’ve said this before, when I fought Giga [Chikadze], a good friend of mine by the way now, I struggled about life after fighting and I made myself a promise that I was going to start working on the next chapter of my life. And I’ve been doing that, and I built this amazing fight team, Bloodline Combat Sports. That’s my passion now.”
That, and his family, Swanson added. “I’m pretty content.”
Watch the full UFC 327 post-fight press conference with Cub Swanson above.
