Lightweight competitor Stevie Ray suffered the first knockout loss of his career to Paul Felder at UFC Fight Night Glasgow.
It was the final fight on his UFC contract and when a new deal is offered to him, the fighters doesn’t expect it ot be anything great.
“I don’t know what’s next,” Ray told MMA Fighting. “I don’t know what my future holds exactly. I know it will be fighting, obviously, but I’m still waiting on Sean Shelby to get back to me with what UFC is proposing. The fight didn’t go my way so they are probably going to offer me a not-so-good contract. I’m just waiting to see what gets sent.”
Despite the loss to Felder, the lightweight has picked up victories in the UFC over top names like Joe Lauzon and Ross Pearson.
Ray would like to remain a part of the UFC roster, but a good offer from Bellator MMA may entice him to go elsewhere.
“I want to be with the UFC,” he said. “This free agency thing was never intended as threat to the UFC. I didn’t know that people were looking at in that way. I was never threatening that I would go elsewhere. I just wanted the money that I asked for and I was told by my manager that if I won my next fight I would get that money. Obviously, that hasn’t worked out. At the same time, if Bellator came after me and said that they were going to offer me good money and I hadn’t heard from the UFC, say if they were not going to offer me anything, you’ve got to where the money is in that case. I’ve got a family now and it’s taken me a long time to get to where I am. There were a lot of sacrifices and a lot of stressful times. I’ve got a fiancé and three kids at home. Technically, I don’t have a job right now, and that’s a problem in my kind of situation.”
If Ray does in fact exit the UFC now, then his next fight would be the first time he has competed outside of the promotion’s auspices in just under three years.
