From retiring twice in one night to winning three UFC fights, Chris Curtis is back where he belongs

Chris Curtis dreamed of fighting inside the Octagon for over a decade as a professional mixed martial artist. However, as his UFC debut gets underway, it’s turning into a nightmare.

He competed in a UFC 268 preliminaries last November in New York, and Curtis was defeated by an opponent he thought was nothing more than a muscular wrestler. The punches went straight to Curtis’ head, their effects increasingly evident on his face. Kicks to the body, one after another, landing with horrible sobs.

As Round 1 ticked to the last minute, television analysts on the side were discussing the need for Curtis to achieve something important to win the respect of his opponents, Phil Hawes.

“Curtis has to stop this momentum,” said Joe Rogan. “Clear momentum… OHHH!”

“Here it is!” yelling Daniel Cormier. (Watch this fight on ESPN+)

Curtis had just interrupted the commentary with a left hook that sent Hawes wobbly with his legs unable to hold him upright, and Curtis charged in with a finishing punch. As the umpire waved his hand with 33 seconds remaining, Curtis ran around the Octagon with his arms raised, eyes dancing and a wide smile.

“I gave up 14 years of my life for this!” he told Rogan during their cage interview. “I missed my son’s birthday! I missed everything for so many years!”

Curtis, 35, is now making up for lost time. On Saturday, when he had to face Jack Hermansson in the UFC co-main event in London, this will be his fourth fight in just eight months with the promotion. He is leading 3-0 in the Octagon, and this will be his third appearance on short notice.

“My motto is ‘Get ready yesterday,'” Curtis (August 29) told ESPN. “I’m a full-time boxer, training seven days a week. I’m always ready to go, especially now that I’m in the UFC. I waited forever to hear Bruce Buffer say my name, get a knockout at Madison Square Garden, then let Joe Rogan welcome me to the UFC. I have sacrificed a lot for this. “

The sacrifice Curtis points to in the interview after the skirmish at the Garden was the time he missed with his son. Kris, who turns 15 in October, lives in Ohio with his mother, whom Curtis met when she was three months pregnant with the boy. He later adopted Kris, but Curtis lived and trained in Las Vegas for most of Kris’ life. However, the distance between them and the amount of time apart didn’t stop the two from forging a bond that proved to be integral to Curtis’s fighting career. He believes wholeheartedly that he would not be where he is today without his son.

Back in 2018, Curtis had the chance to earn a UFC contract on Dana White’s Contender Series. He made a strong case for himself by scoring a lightning-fast knock-out, but he was not offered a contract late in the night. Curtis was devastated.

“I’m done with MMA,” he said. “I sat in the locker room and told my team this is it for me. I’ve been working hard for years to get to the UFC. I beat the guys who then signed. I hit it. beat the people’ d in the UFC. Then I joined Contenders, knocked him out with a hook kick and didn’t get signed? I was, like, what else can I do?”

When Curtis called his son to say he was retiring from fighting and going home, Kris was overjoyed that he was getting to see his dad, but the boy had one question: What would you do now? what now? no longer fighting?

Curtis had no answer.

“You have to understand that for my boy, fighting is synonymous with who I am,” he said. “I mean, my son was just three weeks old and was in the crowd in my first amateur game. It’s been part of this in my whole career, sacrificing more than anyone to I can be a boxer. It can’t wrap my brain. I’m not a fighter anymore. And honestly, neither am I.”

As Curtis talked to his son in the days that followed, “what next?” Questions keep popping up. He suddenly realized that his son was turning the tide and the life lessons that Curtis had passed on to Kris throughout his life.

“I have repeatedly preached to my son that when things get tough for you, you just can’t give up,” says Curtis. “I always told him that if something wasn’t hard it probably wasn’t worth doing. So now he’s challenging me about his decision to retire from fighting. How can I walk away when everyone else is fighting? things get difficult? I mean, I’m the one who taught him to never give up.”

So Curtis is back in the fight – even though he hasn’t given up yet.

Less than a year after his disappointment at the Contenders Series, Curtis signed with the PFL for the 2019 season. A risky detour in the pursuit of his UFC dreams, but the potential rewards are tempting. .

“If all goes well, I will win a million dollars,” Curtis said he remembers thinking. “But if things don’t go well in the PFL, the UFC will notice and will never sign me.

The big night came in the knockout stages at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas in October of that year, when Curtis attempted to secure a spot in the $1 million finals. Competing in the old PFL rivalry format, the quarter-finals and semi-finals will take place in one night. First for Curtis as the defending welterweight champion, Magomed Magomedkerimov. Curtis lost by decision, and he took off his gloves and placed them in the center of the cage.

“That’s the worst-case scenario,” he said. “There will be no million dollars and no UFC. This time I really finished as a fighter.”

Or not.

After Curtis got quietly sat backstage for a few minutes to let the emotions surrounding his retirement sink in, he grabbed a plate of food. He’ll have a bite before he changes into his combat shorts and goes home. As he was about to learn about his chicken and waffles, Curtis saw the PFL president Ray Sefo go in your direction.

Sefro told him that Magomedkerimov had fallen ill after their game and needed to be substituted in the semi-final, which was due to start in a few minutes. Can Curtis fight? Of course he can.

Ten minutes after sitting with a plate of food on his lap and with no future fighting ahead, Curtis put on his gloves and walked back to the cage. His opponent is Ray Cooper IIIwho was a finalist last year.

Curtis did not make it to the jury’s scoreboard this time around. Cooper knocked him out in the second round and advanced to the season finale. Curtis went to another place.

“Okay, guys, still retired,” Curtis told reporters afterward. “I like to count it as a retirement.”

Whether one calls it a one- or two-night retirement, the same question arises for Curtis: What will his son say?

Curtis didn’t have a better answer at the time, but looking back on that night now, he realizes that his son already knew what was in his father’s heart.

“I’ve given up a thousand and one things in my life, and by that point Kris is old enough to get used to it,” he says. “I was like, ‘F — it,’ threw my hand in the air, walked away. I put my heart on my sleeve and I reacted. He saw it. But he also saw that I never give up on anything Long.”

His manager, Jason House, took this roller coaster ride with Curtis and others in the sport. “After a fight, a boxer’s emotions go 100 miles an hour,” he said. “You have to give him some time to breathe, to make sure that what he said right after that wasn’t just a knee-jerk reaction. As for Chris, I think maybe this time he really did do it. that, though I don’t think he really wants to be done.”

Sure enough, only three months had passed before Curtis joined a battle. Then another. And another. By October of last year, he was on a five-fight streak when House received a late-night call from UFC matchmaker Mick Maynard. The promotion needed a middleweight boxer who could one day step in to face Hawes. Curtis, who has always competed in the welterweight division, participated.

The last-minute fight fell through, but it was rescheduled a month later at UFC 268. Curtis finally got the chance he’d been waiting for.

“In this sport, it’s not just about who’s good, but who’s left,” House said. “We’re seeing longevity and perseverance pay off a lot for today’s warriors. Glover Teixeira. Charles Oliveira. Brandon Moreno. Who can withstand all the adversities that MMA brings? “

For Curtis, the secret to that perseverance is love. Because the love he has for his son remains strong despite missing all the birthdays, his love for fighting is the North Star that he fixes to determine when the time will come. have to leave.

“I’ve always been afraid of being an old man at the bar saying I might be a candidate,” says Curtis. “My goal has always been to go as far as possible, and I’m afraid to give up too soon. How do I know when I’ve gone as far as I can and it’s over? Listen to your heart As long as you have a dream and have love for that dream, you will suffer for it, do anything for that dream.

“Going to the UFC is great, a dream come true. But anyone who says this is the finish line is an idiot. My goal isn’t just to get here. I need to go as far as I can. while I still love it. When the love is over, it’s over.”