Athletes
There's Only One Bobby Green
Bobby Green Is Back In Action At UFC Fight Night: Pavlovich vs Blaydes And Fans Can Expect "King" To Show Out.
A Bobby Green fight is always a good excuse to be in front of the television on a Saturday night. Knowing that it’s the last Bobby Green fight this Saturday in Las Vegas makes it doubly important to adjust your plans.
But wait, there’s a catch.
“This is my last,” said the veteran lightweight, who meets up with Jared Gordon at the UFC APEX. “It's going to be my last Bobby Green fight. I'm changing my name to King. Only King and nothing else. And so this is the last Bobby Green fight. I'm retiring as Bobby Green.”
Preview Every Fight For This Weekend
If you’ve followed the career of the 36-year-old for any length of time, you are well aware that the Fontana native has always marched to the beat of his own drummer, and that attitude has kept us invested through the ups, downs and everything in between. But why is Bobby Green being put in the rearview mirror now?
“I’m just trying to do something different,” he said. “Keep pushing, keep changing. I'm just a different guy, that guy that you can't put your finger on.”
That’s true. Then again it’s always been true when it comes to Green, a pro for over 15 years who has always kept opponents and fans guessing. That’s led him to big wins over the likes of Josh Thomson, Clay Guida, Lando Vannata, Al Iaquinta and Nasrat Haqparast, and after a recent cold stretch where he lost back-to-back bouts to Islam Makhachev and Drew Dober, it was time to get things moving again, never providing a steady target.
“That's how you have to be with this world,” said Green. “Because people will forget about you. You just become the same old person and you got to really be able to reinvent yourself and show that you can still keep up in the newer generation.”
MORE FIGHT NIGHT: Fighters On The Rise | What You Need To Know | Brogan Walker Is No Stranger To Difficulties | Brady Hiestand Is The New Guy In Town
That means win, lose or draw this weekend, we will be seeing him with four-ounce gloves on again.
“I'm still going to be a fighter, and this is not changing that at all, but it's really just to motivate people, to show people that, hey, I started out as this and I landed all the way over here.”
Highlight: Bobby Green Knocks Out Al Iaquinta In The First Round | UFC 268
Unlock MORE of your inner combat sports fan with UFC Fight Pass! Fighting is what we live for. And no one brings you MORE live fights, new shows, and events across multiple combat sports from around the world. With a never-ending supply of fighting in every discipline, there’s always something new to watch. Leave it to the world’s authority in MMA to bring you the Ultimate 24/7 platform for MORE combat sports, UFC Fight Pass!
Highlight: Bobby Green Knocks Out Al Iaquinta In The First Round | UFC 268
/
Despite the 29-14-1 slate he carries into the Octagon on Saturday, Green has always been more than a win-loss record. Like many standouts from over the years, you remember him not for the end result, but the journey to get there, and how it felt watching him. So when you put the obituary on the career of Bobby Green, he makes it clear that it was never about the belt.
“I was never interested in the title,” he said. “I was never interested in those things. Guys like Jorge Masvidal, guys like Nate Diaz, we never got the title, but we're bigger than some of the actual titleholders. And so, to me, it was more about the mission of inspiring people. The mission was to get people to just feel alive again. Sometimes someone's going through a long life and they're just living life, but they're not really living. And so maybe I could wake some people up and shock 'em a little bit.”
View Green's Athlete Profile | Lightweight Rankings
It's an unselfish attitude, one that may have hurt his bottom line over the years. But he has no regrets about that or concerns if that was the case. For him, doing what he set out to do was the biggest victory, one that he can see reflected in his kids and others he’s influenced.
“The goal at the end of the day was accomplishing my goal of putting out good content that could be timeless, that people could watch forever, that people would enjoy while I could be a great human being, someone that I could be proud of when I left this game, and giving some poor little kid a new way to look at things. I came just from where you came from. Some people don't think that I came from these dark places, they think I'm just this rich guy or I'm thinking I'm this or that. No, I came exactly where you came from. Hard times.”
Hard times are actually what led Green here, as the birth of his son forced him to go from working in a warehouse to the punch for pay ranks. It was a courageous choice, and one he hasn’t looked back on, mainly because he was able to keep his integrity while doing it.
“Being me and being a hundred percent me, that's what I feel like nobody can take away from me, that I'm just being real,” he said. “When I feel like a lot of other fighters were playing for the cameras, saying things for the cameras, even in their fights, they can't ever say that I didn't put my heart and soul out there. Every f**king time I went out there, I put my heart and soul into it.”
He’ll do it again on Saturday. And truth be told, I’m going to miss Bobby Green. But I can’t wait to see what King brings.
“I'm here to serve,” he said. “I don't think that ever stops.”
UFC Fight Night: Pavlovich vs Blaydes took place live from the UFC APEX in Las Vegas on April 22, 2023. See the Final Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC Fight Pass!
Tags
