Beat Ferreira who was ranked top 15 and on a six fight win streak. He did that almost a year and a half ago.
Prior to that he was KOed by Lee a year and a half before the Ferreira fight.
Everyone saw the activity it took from Oliveira, Chandler, Makhachev, Dustin, Gaethje to get to the title fight in that division.
How you could watch Oliveira and Makhachev fight down in the rankings like crazy to earn a title shot and then sit out like you are Conor McGregor or something while you have 12k twitter followers is baffling.
Dariush has had 11 fights, going 9-2-1 since Gillespie has been around but he has been fighting down in the rankings most of the time and he is on the cusp of a title shot.
Oliveira has been 12-2 since Gillespie signed with the promotion and was also often fighting down in the rankings. Makhachev is 10-0 since Gillespie signed but again, had to fight down in the rankings most of the time.
Going 1-1 vs top 15 ranked fighters and then saying you won’t fight down in the rankings sounds like career suicide for a fighter with no following in the UFC.
Whenever fighters spends huge chucks out of the cage at a time, my immediate thought is that they simply don’t believe in themselves to get to a higher level
I imagine its injuries have taken their toll on him and he just knows he don’t have that many camps and fights left in him so they have to really count. Thats just my guess. As a big fan of the division I was really rooting for him to be back in there in a big fight this year.
I’ve got no idea about who he is outside the cage or why he hasn’t fought. But with his talent, barring illness or just not really enjoying MMA, I can’t see any reason why he wouldn’t fight more
He either doesn’t want to fight or he gets terrible advice from his management. But let’s be honest, he isn’t a top 5 guy, not even close. Watch his fight with Diego, it pushed him to his limits and Diego is good, but will never be top 5. If he doesn’t need the money he should just retire. He could fight 5-6 more times but he’ll be at .500 in those fights if they’re all top 15 guys. He’d also need all those fights in the next 2 years. He didn’t waste his talent, he’s just not a top guy. Too small and doesn’t really stand out at anything.
Still training, judging by this post from a month ago. His only two posts since then have been family-oriented. But I agree with everyone else who said he never realized his full potential in the cage.