Diabaté (photo) will have his last MMA fight against Latifi. Photo: Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC
Even cast to face Ilir Latifi at UFC Fight Night 37, which will take place in London, this Saturday (8), Cyrille Diabaté announced his retirement from MMA. The 40-year-old Frenchman has been hampered by several injuries, which made him opt to retire from the sport even in the event of a positive result in his next fight.
Due to his most recent injury to his calf muscle, Diabaté was unable to perform normal day-to-day tasks for a long time. According to him, the physical sacrifice was no longer worth it. "I quit. I've been doing this for over 20 years, and it's frustrating to go through a two and a half month training period and, in the fight, perform injured. Furthermore, the pain was unbearable”, he said, in an interview with the North American website “MMA Junkie”. “I loved every moment of the 22 years I spent fighting, but now it’s time to pursue different things.”
Diabaté continues: “I spent almost a month without being able to put my foot on the ground. Afterwards, I spent five months doing physiotherapy. It's a bad experience for an athlete to be disabled like that. After this fight, I don’t think anything will motivate me enough to make these sacrifices”, acknowledged the Frenchman.
The athlete considered retiring after his last fight, when he lost to Jimi Manuwa in February 2013, due to a calf injury. However, Diabaté wants to end his career differently. “Pride certainly made me return to fighting. I couldn't leave like that, that couldn't be the end of my career. I wanted to come back and finish with a good performance,” he said.
With an award-winning resume in kickboxing, Diabaté had a more discreet career in MMA. With stints in events such as Cage Rage, Deep, PRIDE, and, of course, UFC, he recorded 19 wins, nine losses and one draw. In his career, the Frenchman faced prominent names such as Renato Babalu, Mauritius Shogun e Alexander Gustafson, although he was defeated by all of them.
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