Joseph Edward Lauzon Jr., or more commonly Joe Lauzon, finally scored a victory. Only, instead of the octagon, it came inside a ring.

The former UFC fighter won the fight in Conor McGregor-co-owned BKFC. Making his bare-knuckle debut at BKFC92, which took place this past weekend in Boston, Lauzon knocked out Stash Kuykendall in the second round. What makes the victory so remarkable is that it comes almost seven years after his last fight in the UFC. Things might have been different, though, had he listened to Hunter Campbell. In an interview with Ariel Helwani, Lauzon revealed what happened in those final moments when the promotion’s chief business officer tried to retain him, dissuading him from joining McGregor’s increasingly popular promotion.

“Hunter basically called me,” Lauzon said. “Like, ‘Hey, look, why are you doing this?’ Like, ‘This is the stupidest thing ever.’ Like, ‘You should not be doing bare-knuckle.’ Like, ‘If it’s a money thing, you know, we’ll help you out. We’ll put you on grappling. We’ll do something with you.’ Like, ‘We don’t want to see you taking punches because you need money or something like that. We want to look out for you.'”

Those comments center around the confusion surrounding the Brockton native’s contractual agreement with the UFC. Competing in the promotion since 2006, a stint that saw him earn a record post-fight bonus in UFC lightweight history, Lauzon’s career began to slide in the latter half of the previous decade.

Following a three-fight losing streak in 2017-18, he found himself sidelined for the next eighteen months.

Returning in October 2019, Lauzon won the bout against Jonathan Pearce. However, he had to wait for more than two years before his next opportunity, against Donald Cerrone, arrived. The bout failed to materialize, first after Cerrone fell ill and later after Lauzon dislocated his knee.

Later, Lauzon announced that he was semi-retired.

So, strictly speaking, since the Cerrone matchup, while Lauzon did not fight, he was not out of the UFC either. His remarks on Helwani’s show also point in that direction when he mentioned that the UFC informed him that his contract was “frozen.”

That ambiguity in his status with the UFC remained when he received a call to compete in the BKFC.

As Hunter Campbell tried to retain him, Lauzon made it clear that his move to McGregor’s promotion had nothing to do with money. Instead, it had more to do with the fact that BKFC was staging the event in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts, where the card unfolded at Fenway Park.

For him, fighting after a hiatus and doing so in front of a home crowd mattered more than anything else. A lifelong grappler, he had never attempted anything related to boxing, let alone bare-knuckle fighting. The chance to take on something completely different explains why he decided to go ahead with BKFC.

Eventually, Campbell relented and agreed to release Lauzon from the UFC, following a legal clearance.

Once the formalities were over, Lauzon inked the deal with the BKFC. Though he’s no longer with the UFC, Lauzon says he still receives notifications related to drug testing, which the promotion sends to fighters on a regular basis.

He does not seem bothered by it. “I mean, I like the association with the UFC, so I don’t mind it. Like I’m not going to go and do anything anyways,” he said.

Lauzon’s case, wherein the UFC tried to retain a fighter, is not unprecedented.

Beyond Joe Lauzon: Conor McGregor and others who faced the UFC’s retention push

The most notable example is Conor McGregor himself. Returning five years after he suffered back-to-back losses against Dustin Poirier, the UFC reportedly offered a long-term contract extension to the Irish superstar. McGregor instead decided to fight out the two remaining bouts on his existing contract.

Like Lauzon, McGregor appears interested in testing the market and exploring opportunities outside the UFC.

The UFC, however, was more successful in retaining Jalin Turner and Mateusz Gamrot. After his previous deal with the UFC expired following the win over Edson Barboza, Turner signed a new five-fight contract with the UFC.

Reportedly, Turner received offers from other promotions. Still, he decided to stick with the UFC.

Gamrot, a lightweight contender, also revealed signing a new multi-fight deal with the UFC in July. While the Polish fighter did not disclose the number of fights on his new deal, the agreement ensured that he would continue his career with the promotion.

Against that backdrop, Lauzon, whom Dana White once paid $1000 every time he forced a tap from one of his associates in the cage, is happy to explore opportunities outside the UFC.

More practically, at age 42, he must have understood that opportunities to make a run in the UFC are becoming fewer. For now, though, Lauzon has chosen a different path, one that has already given him a win.