City Kickboxing star announces UFC retirement

By Christopher Reive

After the horn sounded to end the third and final round of Tyson Pedro’s bout against Vitor Petrino, the Australian light heavyweight walked back to his corner and held out his gloves for his dad, John, to cut the tape off of.

Over the years, a fighter wanting to remove their gloves immediately after a fight has become a precursor to a retirement speech.

That was the case for Pedro. After being on the wrong side of a unanimous decision against Petrino on Sunday, the City Kickboxing fighter announced his decision to call time on his UFC career and laid his gloves down on the octagon canvas.

“I didn’t want to take away from his win,” Pedro said when given the opportunity to announce his decision after the fight. “Obviously I had a different plan, so it wasn’t the best performance.

“Thank you to all the fans, thank you very much to the UFC for everything they’ve done on this journey, and especially thanks to my team and anyone who has helped me get to this stage in my martial arts career. It’s been amazing, but it’s always been my intention to show my daughter that as long as you work your ass off and grind towards what you love, you can do anything you can dream of. My dreams have just changed at this point, so that’s it for me with the UFC.

“Thank you to all the fans from the bottom of my heart. I don’t think it’s goodbye, just see you later. So, until then, thanks, everyone.”

It brought an end to a tenure of more than seven years on the roster of the world’s top MMA promotion, though that tenure hasn’t always been a smooth ride for the 32-year-old.

Pedro arrived in a big way on the UFC stage in late 2016 when he submitted Khalil Rountree Jr - who is currently the UFC’s No 8-ranked light heavyweight - in the first round.

That took his professional MMA record to 5-0, and he followed that up with a first-round knockout win over Paul Craig - currently the UFC’s No 12-ranked middleweight.

He then went 1-3 across his next four bouts, the last of which was a knockout loss to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in 2018 that saw him sustain a knee injury.

It was an injury that required surgery to repair and after he reinjured it in preparing for his return fight at UFC Auckland in 2020 and required surgery again, it ultimately ended up setting his career back more than three years.

Since returning in 2022, Pedro went 3-2 with all three of those wins coming by first-round knockout.

While the curtain fell on Pedro’s time with the UFC, fellow Australian Steve Erceg continued his surge in the flyweight rankings with an emphatic second-round knockout against Matt Schnell that should see him land in the division’s top 10 when rankings are updated next week.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission