Borg On Potential MMA Retirement: ‘I Couldn’t Walk Away’

One of the aspects of being an MMA fighter is saying something out of the ordinary during the heat of the moment. Sometimes they mean it, other times they don’t. Ray Borg can be marked under the latter side of things when it comes to his future within the sport.

Borg (13-4) missed weight back in February in his fight against Rogerio Bontorin. He ended up winning the bout via unanimous decision. Prior to the contest, Borg said he would retire if he missed weight again. He has since retracted his statement, stating he can’t simply leave the sport he loves.

“Yeah, you say a lot of crazy (expletive) when you’re trying to campaign for a fight,” Borg stated to MMA Junkie. “When you really want to fight, sometimes you tweet some stuff that you may not mean in the long run and I guess I just had such sure confidence. You just don’t walk away from the sport with something like that. I couldn’t walk away.”

Weight issues have become a true fascinating subject for Borg. Prior to a win against Gabriel Silva back in July, Borg made his bantamweight debut against Casey Kenney in March. He missed weight for that fight (137 pounds) and lost. Borg missed weight against Geane Herrera (126.75) back in 2015 and against Louis Smolka (129.5) back at UFC 207 in 2016. Borg weighed in at 128 for the Bontorin bout. In total, he is 3-1 in fights he has missed weight for.

Since the last fight, Borg made it known he will be moving back to bantamweight for the foreseeable future. One of his main goals is continuing on for his son, who had had a number of medical issues since birth. Borg wants to make sure he did right by him and his son.

“I couldn’t let my son know I walked away from the sport because of that, so I guess that’s why I’m so eager to fight, because I’m tired of this weight cut (expletive) hanging over my head,” Borg went on to say. “I know there’s only one way to make it go away and that’s to make weight and put on a great fight.”

Borg was originally meant to compete at UFC 249 on April 18 against Marlon Vera. The event ended up being postponed.