Bobby Green clarifies retirement talk, reveals he’ll just go by ‘King’ after UFC Vegas 71: “I’m going to be changing my name”

Bobby Green won’t actually be retiring after UFC Vegas 71 after all.

After Green suffered a knockout loss to Drew Dober, he revealed his next fight would serve as his retirement bout. The veteran has been fighting as a pro since 2008 and has fought 44 times as a pro, including 20 times in the UFC. Shortly after announcing his next fight would be his last, Green was booked to face Jared Gordon at UFC Vegas 71.

It’s an intriguing matchup as both look to get back into the win column. Yet, ahead of the fight, Green clarified his retirement talk and said he wouldn’t be retiring from fighting. Rather, he will be retiring his name Bobby Green and just going by ‘King’ from now on.

“I’ve been telling everybody that I was retiring after this fight, and what I meant was I was retiring as Bobby Green. I’m going to be changing my name, and I will no longer be Bobby Green,” Green said to The Underground. “I’m changing my name to just King. No last name. Just one name, and so this is just the beginning of a new chapter for me. You know, I was looking at Jorge. He had 52 fights before he retired, so to me, I want some other sh-t. Like, those guys are all chasing different things, like chasing the belt, chasing this. For me, I’m personally chasing my own goals where it’s to have this many amount of fights in me, doing it this consistently, at this age, no one’s doing it. No one’s knocking three, four, five fights out a year, 55 fights in, you know what I’m saying?

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“To still be doing it and still look great, it’s like where I don’t look like I lost my – ‘He ain’t lost his speed. He ain’t lost that. He don’t look old,’ you know, so I’m really just competing with myself,” Green continued. “I’ve got a couple more things I want to do personally, for myself, which is like have a main event. I got the main event with with Islam, but I felt like they threw that at me, you know? I really want something that was earned, you know, and actually get my own poster that I actually want to f-ck with, you know what I’m saying? So a main event. Besides that, then after I’ll think about when I’m going to set it down, but I’ve just got a couple things I need to do before it, which is have the most amount of fights, which I think is 52 right now. I ain’t seen nobody else with 52 and still out there consistently doing it, so I want to do that, a main event, and then maybe from there I’ll think about sitting it down.”

As Bobby Green says, the plan is to get the most fights in UFC history and then see what the future holds. But, Saturday night will be the last time Bobby Green fights as after that, he will only go by King.

What do you make of Bobby Green saying he will change his name?