Recently, Vinny Magalhaes suffered a knockout at the hands of Anthony Perosh in less than twenty-seconds. While it was not on the live feed of the event, it was rumored that Magalhaes left his glove sin the cage after the match. This lead to speculation that the former BJJ champion was retiring from the sport of MMA. Now, he has broken his silence and this is what he said.
"I have one more fight left in my contract, but we all know that it doesn’t mean much and there’s a chance that I get cut. Before this fight I said I deserved to get cut if I didn’t win. I’m waiting for UFC’s decision, anything can happen, but I really don’t care, man."
Essentially, if the UFC does decide to cut him then he will not compete in the sport anymore. It has happened where a fighter is cut after two losses, but at 29 years old and having one win in the octagon it would be a bad choice to cut Magalhaes. If anything, an extended layoff for him to focus on his game would do him well, and he is so young that it would help. In his last fight, he was just caught off guard, and he was not beaten over the course of three rounds. For those that think a retirement of Magalhaes will lead to a return to the BJJ world, well do not count on it.
"People say that the UFC doesn’t pay much to their fighters, but if you look to the other events it’s even worse. So if they cut me, I don’t see why I should keep fighting in other event. I rather open my own gym than fight for little money. I stopped fighting in Jiu-Jitsu because of the financial part, so it would make no sense for me to return now. If the UFC doesn’t renew my contract, I’ll stop (fighting)."
Magalhaes would rather go train than either fight in the regional circuit, and he has already quit BJJ because the money cannot provide for his family. He has already helped train other top tier fighters in Chael Sonnen, and his grappling skills can get him other jobs like that. Hopefully, he gets at least one more shot, because the level of high BJJ players in the Octagon is not enough.