Javier Vasquez Retires
Javier Vasquez announced his retirement from MMA on January
14. His record, as of his retirement, is 16-5. Vasquez is primarily known for
his fighting in the WEC. He has deep roots with the UFC, however, being the
son-in-law of Rorion Gracie. The fighter fought in the lightweight and
featherweight divisions, starting in the latter in 2007. He fought in the
lightweight division from 1998 until 2007.
Javier holds a 3rd degree black belt in Brazilian
Jiu-Jitsu.
Vasquez took Joe Stevenson in UFC on Versus 4 in June of
2011. That marked his last fight. In the interview on Sherdog where he
announced his retirement, he did acknowledge that he still has fights left on
his UFC contract but that he "just doesn't want to do it." He
mentioned that he doesn't want to be someone that "everyone is begging to
retire" in the interview, as well.
Vasquez was very candid and modest in the interview. He said
that he didn't want to face the fear of going into the cage anymore and that
his body had taken as much as it could take. He said that the Stevenson fight
made him feel that he had nothing left to give and that he had nothing left to
prove.
In the end, Vasquez will leave MMA in a very good place.
He's taken three of the last four fights he's been in. He's fought in 21 fights
total during his MMA career and, as his record attests, has certainly proven
quite a lot in that time.
If Vasquez is remembered for anything in particular, it will
probably be for his fight against Alberto Crane. During that fight, he tore his
ACL during the first round. He managed to hang on for the entire fight, even
though he couldn’t throw a punch without falling. As Vasquez said, he has
nothing left to prove.
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