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View Full Version : Health complications lead former UFC champ Matt Serra to 'walk away' from MMA



Pahlavan
23-05-2013, 22:05
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Matt Serra (http://www.sbnation.com/mma/fighter/122589/matt-serra) always thought he'd come back, if only for one last adrenaline rush, one last moment of glory. But now, at the age of 38, health complications have caused the owner of the greatest upset in UFC history to call it quits.


"It's hard to say it," Serra told Newsday (http://www.newsday.com/sports/mixed-martial-arts/matt-serra-former-ufc-champ-walking-away-from-mma-1.5315512). "It's like you can't say it, even though it probably is true. I would love to put closure on my career with one last fight at the Garden, but at the same time, if that doesn't happen, I definitely consider myself done. It's hard to say the 'R word.' I might never say the 'R word.'


"I really think I'm walking away. I'm going to be 39, I just had my rib taken out. I'm having my third kid. My schools are doing well. What am I doing, looking for another pay day? It's not really for that. I mean, it doesn't stink, but it's not really for that. Am I still trying to hold on for the glory? Glory is a drug, dude. I'm telling you, that's the problem. It really is. I know why guys can't walk away. I absolutely get it."


The rib Serra is referring to is the first rib on his left side, which doctors removed last month after two blood clots in Serra's arm and another in his lungs nearly killed him, if not for a lucky 2 a.m. hospital visit.


"I got freaked out," said Serra. "You don't catch that [and] after the lung, that stops your heart or your brain. Then you're done. I'm very fortunate to, basically, be here. Sounds kind of morbid. If I didn't catch that -- I was about to go to bed. I'm like, man, something's not feeling right."


Serra must now inject the anticoagulant Lovenox into his stomach every day to curb the damage, and he'll continue doing so for the next three months. The surgery to remove his rib, however, was a bit more gruesome.
"They had to cut me open through my armpit and cut through whatever they had to cut through and get my rib out," said Serra. "It's definitely strange and I'm feeling it in there."


Serra retires with a mixed martial arts record of 17-7. He racked up a 7-7 record in the UFC, culminating in a stunning first-round TKO victory over Georges St-Pierre (http://www.sbnation.com/mma/fighter/122591/georges-st-pierre) to seize the UFC welterweight strap, after earning an automatic title shot via TUF 4, The Ultimate Fighter's lone comeback season.


"I know I can be beat by some of these guys, but I know I can still knock some of these guys out and be a threat on the ground," Serra said. "But at the same time, it used to be that the thing that made me happiest was the next fight. Now, I whistle to work going to my schools. I love hanging out with my kids, my family. That's something you never really anticipate or understand it until you have a family.


"An aging fighter?" finished Serra. "You know, it's like an aging stripper, but not as funny. Not a lot of people want to see that."

YoMarK
23-05-2013, 22:16
Goede beslissing. Goede vechter, en een markant persoon. Zo zouden er meer van moeten zijn.