UFC lightweight Joe Lauzon may return to the cage.
The fighter has not competed in the octagon since defeating Jonathan Pearcy in 2019. The fight was a well-deserved victory after his three-fight losing streak. Many had thought that would be it, but Lauzon had other plans in mind. The fighter tried to book another fight with Donald Cerrone, but the match had to be canceled twice due to injury. Following this, the 40-year-old tried to score another fight in 2023, but the promotion declined. UFC CEO Dana White has since urged the fighter to retire.
Although the fighter may not be getting any bookings at the moment, he intends to stay in the game. Lauzon revealed that if an opportunity ever arises, he will oblige.
“I’ve been focused more on my gym than I have on training. Everyone’s always asking, like, ‘Oh, are you going to fight again? Are you not going to fight again?’ and my answer is always kind of ambiguous—I don’t really know.” Joe Lauzon stated in the interview with MMA Fighting. “I wanted to fight Chase Hooper last summer when they were going to come to Boston, but that didn’t work out; they didn’t want to do that. So, I don’t know. If they came to me with a fight and a matchup that I liked… I’m still training all the time, but I’m not pressing the issue.”
He continued, “I don’t exactly know a valid way to get out of the contract—not that I’m trying to—but I think that there’s a bunch of reasons it can kind of freeze or get prolonged, right? So I think it’s if you turn down a fight, if you are injured, or if you retire—you know, those things all prolong and extend it, right? So, from my perspective, I’m not really trying to fight anywhere else, so I don’t really care.”
Despite his inactivity, he is still under the UFC contract and is the longest-serving fighter on the current roster. The fighter has found it hard to book fights over the years and has only stepped into the cage 27 times. However, he is hopeful that he will get another day in the octagon.
