At UFC Seattle, the promotion provided Michael Chiesa a hero-like ending to his career. In front of his home crowd, ‘Maverick’ got a tribute video and a retirement speech that made the fans emotional. However, alongside Chiesa, another UFC veteran also retired at Climate Pledge Arena, who received no special treatment. What’s more heartbreaking is that the promotion promised a fairytale ending but didn’t deliver.

Following Chiesa’s retirement speech, fans waited for co-retiree Niko Price to take the stage. But ‘The Hybrid’ never got to share his thoughts, as the UFC didn’t hand him the mic, which was quite upsetting. Now, the UFC vet reveals that the officials actually promised him a retirement speech, but after losing to Chiesa in 63 seconds, they didn’t provide him the opportunity and broke the promise. 

“I talked to Mike in the back, we were all cool and everything,” Price told Inside Fighting. “Even though I had to stand there and watch his whole thing and they’re like, ‘Yeah, you’re going to get mic time.’ I’m like, ‘Alright, cool.’ Then I’m like, ‘Why am I not getting mic time?’ Then, I was like, ‘Whatever, don’t worry. But can I leave? I don’t want to stay here no more.’ 

Then I told my coach because they didn’t even send off me off at all. They went to my gloves, and then they took a picture of him with my gloves. I was like, ‘Nooo, I wanted to do that picture with my gloves.’ He has his gloves on in the picture,” he added. 

Well, the fans were definitely upset seeing a UFC veteran like Price not getting his moment at such a special event like UFC Seattle. But they didn’t quite understand why. Talking about this issue, Daniel Cormier weighed in. He was responsible for taking post-fight speeches, and the former two-division champion revealed that the entire situation would have become weird if they took Price’s interview.

“It was kind of weird, man,” Cormier said on his YouTube channel. “I didn’t know what I was going to do about Niko Price. He was retiring, too, but I just didn’t feel like you could interview him after you interview Michael in this situation.”

To be honest, ‘DC’ didn’t quite reveal why he felt interviewing Price would feel weird after Michael Chiesa’s emotional retirement. However, we can assume that ‘Maverick’ retired in front of his home crowd, and that too with a win. So, the official didn’t want that moment to clash with another retirement speech.

Now, it’s true that Niko Price felt disappointed for not getting the retirement he wanted. But when it comes to saying goodbye to the sport, he revealed it to be a very hard decision that came after a lot of discussion with loved ones. 

Niko Price reflects on the decision behind taking UFC retirement 

Niko Price broke into the UFC scene after defeating Brandon Thatch at UFC 207 in 2016. So, after a decade of grueling showdowns, ‘The Hybrid’ retired with an 8-11-2 record, which totals 21 fights in the organization. And that’s a long time to spend fighting inside the cage

For that reason, when the initial talks of his retirement came up, the 36-year-old had to discuss it with his wife, who apparently encouraged him to have his final fight against Michael Chiesa at UFC Seattle.

“It was mentioned probably like 10 days before the fight, ‘Would this be a possibility?'” Price continued at the Inside Fighting interview. “I said, ‘I have to talk to my team.’ At first I was like, ‘No,’ but then me and my wife started talking, and I was like, ‘I’m getting old, man. Everything hurts. I want to spend time with my kids and stop being so selfish and spending so much time with myself.’ 

She goes, ‘I don’t really want you to do it anymore and it’s getting really hard on my daughters.’ I mean, it’s hard on me too, man. Even though it was on seven days’ notice, still, losing sucks.” 

That said, as Niko Price has finally taken retirement, what do you think of his fighting career at the UFC? Comment down below.