Raphael Assuncao was realistic heading into his fight with Victor Henry at UFC Fight Night 212.
A loss would be his fifth straight within the Las Vegas-based promotion, and with it would have come with some tough decisions. Instead, Assuncao blended savvy counterstriking with takedowns and top control to earn a unanimous decision triumph.
In the aftermath of his first victory since July 2018, Assuncao admitted that retirement would have been on the table if he had come up short, or at the very least, a change in weight class.
“To be honest, probably …I’m not being proud about it,” he said after the fight. “I would have probably made the switch to featherweight, but I’m not positive if I still would’ve been in the UFC. Five losses (in a row) is probably not a good number to be in the UFC. If I decided not to retire if I had lost today, I would probably move up in weight class just because I feel I was losing muscle. Just [contemplating] all these things.”
Before a rough stretch that saw him fall to the likes of Marlon Moraes, Cory Sandhagen, Cody Garbrandt and Ricky Simon, Assuncao was a perennial contender at 135 pounds, winning 11 of 12 Octagon appearances from 2011 to 2018. During that time, the Ascension MMA representative defeated notable foes such as Rob Font, Moraes, Aljamain Sterling, T.J. Dillashaw and Pedro Munhoz. Now 40 years old, Assuncao may no longer be in the title picture, but he can go forward in the division he has called home for the duration of his UFC tenure.
“My team trusted in me. They made sure I had a great weight cut,” he said. “It’s tough. It’s 20 pounds of water and muscle. But I can recuperate pretty good. It worked out good. But if had I lost, maybe I retire from the bantamweight division, yeah.”
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