Gamburyan announces retirement following loss
When Manny Gamburyan began competing in mixed martial arts, the sport was most often referred to as no-holds-barred or cage fighting and it was often unsanctioned.
Hence, when you go to renowned mixed-martial-arts website and database Sherdog.com, it shows that his professional debut came in 1999, though he said on Saturday night it was actually 1997.
While fights from that burgeoning era that paved the way for today’s borderline mainstream world of MMA are often lost to the history books, Saturday will go down as Gamburyan’s last fight.
On Saturday night on UFC Fight Night 100 at the Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Gamburyan lost to Johnny Eduardo in the second round of their men’s bantamweight bout via technical knockout and subsequently announced his retirement.
“This might surprise a lot of people or even my family, my friends,” Gamburyan, 35, said in the cage after requesting some time from interviewer Jon Anik. “It’s been a long road, it’s been tough. I came out here, it was my first time being in Brazil, I had a great time, but I think this is it for me, I’m going to call it a career, probably.”
While he said “probably” and later said, “as of right now,” Gamburyan maintained on Monday’s MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani that he was going to retire, citing mounting injuries as the chief reason behind him stepping away, along with the injuries being contributing factors to his inability to compete at the highest of levels.
With his retirement, Gamburyan ended his career with an official record of 15-10 with one no-contest, having posted a 9-9 (one no-contest) mark under the Zuffa LLC’s UFC and World Extreme Cagefighting banners.
By his account, Gamburyan’s decision came to him shortly after he picked himself up off the canvas following the TKO by Eduardo (28-10).
“No, I came to Brazil to get the ‘W,’ my point was never to retire in the octagon,” Gamburyan said in a postfight media scrum backstage. “It’s just, when he hurt me, when he dropped it, when I got up, at that point I felt if I can’t hang with these guys, what am I doing here? I can’t do it anymore, so I’d rather walk away.”
For his last fight, Gamburyan’s training was primarily at Millenia MMA. However, for much of his career, Gamburyan trained at the Glendale Fighting Club and Main Event Gym in Glendale, with his homebase usually Team Hayastan in North Hollywood.
He was a longtime friend of Ronda Rousey, who trains at GFC, and was one of her cornermen during her historical fight at UFC 157 in Anaheim when she defeated Liz Carmouche in the first-ever UFC women’s fight. But their days both began in judo, as the Armenian native has been involved in combat sports for more than two decades.
“It was a journey. It was a roller coaster for so many years,” Gamburyan said. “I started judo in 1991. I just celebrated my 25-year anniversary of me training. It’s just, I never took a day off or I never took anything away. Over the years of training, it gets to you sometimes. Looking at the 135-[pound] division or 45 or 55, I feel like my body can’t take it anymore. When something, when I can’t reach for the gold, I won’t fight anymore. I only fight for the gold.”
Gamburyan’s rise to prominence came with his appearance on the fifth season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” still regarded as one of the more memorable in the long tenure of the series for its drama and production of long-tenured UFC fighters.
An underdog throughout the season, Gamburyan posted three wins (though they are considered exhibition victories), which included triumphs over future UFC mainstays Matt Wiman and Joe Lauzon. In the final, Gamburyan appeared to be winning his bout against Nate Diaz, now one of the UFC’s most marketable stars, but lost via second-round submission due to a reoccurring shoulder injury.
Injuries became a huge part of Gamburyan’s career and were a huge part of it ending as he listed his knees, ribs, elbows, shoulders and feet when asked what was plaguing him after his fight with Eduardo.
Over the course of his career, Gamburyan fought in four weight classes – welterweight (170 pounds), lightweight (155), featherweight (145) and bantamweight (135) – and fought at lightweight, featherweight and bantamweight in the UFC.
His greatest career success came at featherweight, as the 5-foot-5 Gamburyan dropped from 155 pounds down to the 145-pound weight class, which was only then apart of the UFC’s sibling company, the WEC.
Following wins over John Franchi and Leonard Garcia, Gamburyan pulled off the greatest victory of his career when he knocked out former WEC champion Mike Thomas Brown on April 24, 2010. Making the triumph all the more significant in the MMA world was it earned Gamburyan a title shot. The victory was all the more momentous for Gamburyan and a good number of his fans as the win came on April 24, the annual day of commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.
Though Gamburyan lost against Jose Aldo in his bid for the WEC featherweight title, he found success back in the UFC at featherweight with future wins against Michihiro Omigawa and Cole Miller before eventually dropping down to bantamweight. At 135 pounds, he earned wins against Cody Gibson and Scott Jorgensen before losses to John Dodson and Eduardo ended his days with the UFC.
Though an Eduardo right hand looked to have floored Gamburyan, he said he suffered a knee injury. Nonetheless, it all added up the end for Gamburyan.
“If I can’t get the gold, I won’t fight,” Gamburyan said in the postfight scrum. “I only fight for the gold and I only fight for the ‘W.’ I’m not a sore loser. Johnny Eduardo was the better man tonight. My goal is always to come to win; it doesn’t matter where I’m at. It doesn’t matter where I’m at; it could be in Brazil, it could be in Germany, it could be in my country, it doesn’t matter. Like I said, if I can’t reach the gold, there’s no point for me to fight. And I feel like I can’t reach the gold. My body and my years of working and fighting, it’s not letting me get there anymore.
“My first MMA fight was when I was 16 years old, so I have a lot of mileage on my body. I love the sports and I’ve been honored to work with the UFC for 10 years.”
