A now retired Harris admits that the decision to retire didn’t come to fruition until the third round of his bout against Baczynski.
“I’m not kidding, no joke, as soon as he punched me in the face the last time, I was like yeah, this sh*t ain’t for me no more,” Harris told MMA Fighting. “Cause a lot of people don’t understand, I went 30-something fights, I didn’t get hit a lot. In my career, I’ve probably been hit clean five times. I’m not joking. I pride myself on my defense and my wrestling. So I really made it a mission not to get hit. I’m getting older, I’m getting slower and I realized in that moment that I did not want to be in there anymore. I got my win. I couldn’t end my career on a loss or a win over someone who wasn’t qualified to be in there against me. I felt good beating Baczynski. He’s a quality opponent. I made that decision in the third round.”
Harris retires with a professional MMA record of 25-8-1 and also exits the sport having won just one of his last five bouts.
The fighter pinpoints the exact moment the decision to retire came to be, which came after Baczynski cracked him with a right early in the third round.
“I was like I’m about to beat his ass and go to the UFC, Bellator, I’m about to make this big social media run,” Harris said. “While I was in there, I felt great. I went in with a broken nose already so my whole game plan was stick and move, stick and move. It wasn’t the most entertaining fight. I landed some good shots, got some good takedowns but I mean anybody with common sense would know with a broken nose, you’re not going to stand there and trade with Seth Baczynski. He’s going to make you pay for it. In the third round, he threw a clean right hand and it caught me square in the face. It was the longest four minutes and 44 seconds of my life.”
This is the third time that Harris has retired, it is unknown at this time if the fighter plans on making another comeback.
