Joe Lauzon never retired.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start there. There were more than a few curious reactions to the news that Lauzon was going to make his bare-knuckle fighting debut in August \u2014 a full seven years after his last appearance in the UFC. Lauzon repeatedly stated after his win over Jonathan Pearce in 2019 that he wasn\u2019t calling it a career, but he was only interested in competing again for the right opportunities.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Lauzon found that opening when the UFC tried to book him against Donald \u201cCowboy\u201d Cerrone. However, a pair of cancellations led to the promotion scrapping the bout all together. For all intents and purposes, the now 42-year-old Massachusetts\u2019 native was fine if he never fought again. Then he got an unexpected call with an offer he never saw coming.<\/p>\n
\u201c[A friend from BKFC] basically texted me [saying], \u2018Are you interested in doing BKFC?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cNot really,\u201d Lauzon said he answered back when speaking to MMA Fighting. \u201cI don\u2019t love the idea of the extra cutting, hurt hands, not really that fun. Then he\u2019s like, \u2018What if it\u2019s at Fenway?\u2019 OK, now I\u2019m interested.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went back and forth a little bit. I think it\u2019s cool. It\u2019s awesome. It\u2019s a really good opportunity. I fought at the TD Garden three times. But Fenway Park is just at a whole different level. That\u2019s what really got me. The fact that it\u2019s at Fenway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Just before the news broke that he had signed with the promotion, BKFC announced a first-of-its-kind event with a fight being held at the historic Fenway Park on Aug. 29. It was the allure of fighting at \u201cThe Cathedral of Boston\u201d that got Lauzon excited about competing again.<\/p>\n
Add to that, Lauzon was happy to dispel any rumor that he had called it a career somewhere over the past seven years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere has never been fights at Fenway, the actual park, so that\u2019s really cool,\u201d Lauzon said. \u201cThat\u2019s exactly what I said \u2014 I\u2019m not going to say I\u2019m retired because things pop up. I hate it when guys say oh yeah, I\u2019m retired and then they come back. That\u2019s not what happened here. I think there was a little bit of confusion. Because after the last fight in Boston, I fought Jonathan Pearce and I said hey look, I\u2019m not saying I\u2019m done, I\u2019m not saying I\u2019m retired. I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen, we\u2019ll see how it goes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen in the media press conference after, Dana [White] said \u2018Lauzon told me win or lose, he was done.\u2019 That\u2019s not what I said. I said if I get my butt kicked here in Boston, then I would be done. But I did not get my butt kicked. I did really well so I left the door open.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lauzon was also disappointed he never got the chance to scrap with Cerrone after putting in a pair of training camps to get ready for that fight.<\/p>\n
Before he could sign on the dotted line with BKFC, Lauzon first had to check in with his old bosses at the UFC because despite his long layoff, he was never released from his contract, which still had fights remaining.<\/p>\n
Lauzon ended up on a call with UFC Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell to explain why he wanted permission to compete in BKFC.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t exactly know what the legality of it is,\u201d Lauzon said. \u201cI emailed the UFC and I\u2019m like, \u2018Hey, what\u2019s the status of my contract? What is my status?\u2019 They called me back right away like, \u2018What are you trying to do? Every time your name comes up as an active guy on the roster, it\u2019s always like don\u2019t worry about him, he\u2019s good, don\u2019t worry about him, he\u2019s OK.\u2019 They didn\u2019t cut me out of respect, maybe more than anything.<\/p>\n
\u201cI talked to Hunter [Campbell] on the phone and told him what I wanted to do and he\u2019s like, \u2018We love you, every time you come up everyone has great things to say about you. Sean Shelby doesn\u2019t say good stuff about anybody but Sean loves you, Joe Silva loved you.\u2019 Everyone going back loves me. [Hunter said], \u2018If it\u2019s a money thing, they would help me out and do this or that.\u2019 But I\u2019m like that\u2019s not what it is. It\u2019s Fenway. It\u2019s literally Fenway. If they could do a show at Fenway, I\u2019d be on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UFC ultimately signed off on the fight and Lauzon was ready to go.<\/p>\n
But to double down on that conversation with Campbell prior to inking his contract, Lauzon makes it clear that his return to action has absolutely nothing to do with financial issues.<\/p>\n
\u201cListen, I\u2019m doing great with my gym on its own,\u201d Lauzon said. \u201cWe just had that big UFC lawsuit, everyone got paid out on that. It\u2019s not about the money. I promise you, it\u2019s not about the money.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about Fenway. It\u2019s a really, really good opportunity and I\u2019m excited for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
As far as the future goes, Lauzon won\u2019t speculate beyond Aug. 29 because he\u2019s carrying the same attitude into this fight as he did when he won in the UFC in 2019 and got ready for Cerrone in 2022.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate it when people start making plans for after the fight,\u201d Lauzon said. \u201cLet\u2019s see how this fight plays out, good, bad, whatever, and see how it goes and if I like it, don\u2019t like it, whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than anything, Lauzon knew he couldn\u2019t pass up the chance to fight at Fenway Park in what could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know if I passed up on it when this fight\u2019s at Fenway, I\u2019d be kicking myself,\u201d Lauzon said. \u201cI\u2019d be upset. We\u2019ll give it a shot and see how it goes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Lauzon never retired. Let\u2019s start there. There were more than a few curious reactions to the news…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":739135,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[63725,94178,829,99,6493,10080,6879],"class_list":["post-739134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-bkfc","tag-bkfc-news","tag-latest-news","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news","tag-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=739134"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/739134\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739135"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=739134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=739134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=739134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}