Gabriel Gonzaga cut from the UFC
A former title challenger was handed his walking papers on Thursday 28 October as Gabriel “Napao” Gonzaga was released from the Ultimate Fighting Championships. The heavyweight had lost two fights in a row,
most recently dropping a unanimous decision to Brendan Schaub at UFC 121.
Gonzaga himself broke the news over Twitter.
“Official now - Out of UFC - Thanks for all your support - back to normal life and BJJ [Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu] forever,” wrote Gonzaga.
Gonzaga’s recent form hasn’t been impressive. Now 11-6, he’s dropped three of his last four fights. He first nearly knocked out Shane Carwin before being KO’d by Carwin, then came back with against Chris
Tuchscherer, but that was controversial because of the devastating groin kick Gonzaga landed on his opponent. He was then knocked out by Junior Dos Santos before losing to Schaub.
But Gonzaga will almost undoubtedly be remembered for one spectacular moment that shocked the mixed martial arts world. He was pitted against superstar Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic in a title eliminator in 2007.
He came in as a huge underdog against the Croatian, who was famous for his head kick knockouts. Gonzaga instead landed a huge right head kick of his own that crumpled the Croatian in the first round and sent Filipovic’s career into a downward spiral. It gave
him a title shot, which he lost against Randy Couture in his next fight.
Gonzaga’s tweet appears to be suggesting he’s perhaps hanging up his MMA gloves forever to focus on BJJ. He’s had huge success in the grappling art in the past, having won a gold medal at the Mundials, the
world championships of BJJ.
But it was to the frustration of fans that after his huge knockout of Filipovic he all but stopped using his grappling in the cage. In his most recent fight against Schaub, he only decided to grapple at the
very end of the fight. Within seconds he was able to establish a dominant position and try for a rear naked choke, but he ran out of time in the fight, and as it seems, his UFC career.
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