Joe Lauzon told Dana White he would retire after UFC Boston, but now he’s having second thoughts

UFC lightweight veteran Joe Lauzon told UFC president Dana White that he would retire win, lose, or draw following UFC Boston. But now he’s having second thoughts about it.

Joe Lauzon pulled off a stunning upset when he defeated Jonathan Pearce via first-round TKO in just 1:33. The win snapped Lauzon’s three-fight losing streak and it was his first win in the Octagon since 2017.

After the event, White revealed in the post-fight press conference that he and Lauzon had made a deal that Lauzon would retire regardless of the result of the fight. But White says now that Lauzon is not committed to following through on that.

“Me and Joe Lauzon had a deal that he would retire after this fight, win, lose, or draw. And he didn’t do it,” White said (h/t MMAMania.com). “What better way to go out than tonight? He beat a real guy tonight. He beat a tough guy that I bet a lot of people didn’t think he was gonna beat and he made it look easy.”

White said Joe Lauzon is just like many other fighters who have come before him, in that they don’t know when is the right time to hang up the gloves.

“This is one of those things when you’re talking to a guy who loves to fight like Joe Lauzon loves to fight and the Chuck Liddells and many, many more in the past that I’ve dealt with. It’s so hard to walk away. (They say) ‘I looked great tonight,’ and then if they lose, ‘Well, I can’t go out like this. Getting beat in my hometown in front of all my.’ It’s just, you know,” White said.

For his part, Joe Lauzon says he’s undecided either way about what he wants to do.

“We’ll kind of see what happens. I’m not like, ‘This is definitely the last fight,’ but I’m also not saying I’m definitely going to do it again,” Lauzon said. “Tonight was a great night, but I think too many guys kind of fall into the trap of like, they have a good fight, like, ‘I’m back, here we go.’ I’m not there, but we’ll take it and we’ll see what happens. Maybe I fight in six months, maybe I fight in a year, maybe I’m done, who knows? I’m not going to commit to anything. I’ll stay in the USADA pool. I don’t mind. They come banging on my door every once in a while, no big deal. We’ll see what happens.”

Should Joe Lauzon retire or fight again?