Jason Witt: I Would Have Retired, Had I Lost to Bryan Barberena

Jason Witt believes he showed what he is all about in his latest Octagon appearance, when he took a majority decision from Bryan Barberena in a three-round welterweight feature at UFC on ESPN 28. The fight was pure fire, as each fighter nearly finished the other and both proved to be true warriors. Ultimately, their grueling efforts were rewarded with “Fight of the Night” honors. For Witt, that victory and bonus money were worth even more, as he always believed he had the tenacity to survive a war in the Octagon, but had never had the chance to prove it. In addition, “The Vanilla Gorilla” was fighting the last bout on his UFC contract and was unsure about his future as a fighter.

“It kind of defined my career at the time,” he said. “Going into that fight, it was either, I could retire because I’d be 1-3 in the UFC. If I lost a fight, I would retire. I didn’t want to go back to the local scene. I ended up winning the fight, got a [$50,000] bonus and got a new contract. It really just kind of defined my whole career right there, just moved my career forward. It was one of the craziest fights I’ve ever been in, it’s one of the craziest fights a lot of people have been part of or watched. I figured every round, I round three would be one, two and three. I thought the whole fight should be madness the whole time because that’s how Barberena fights, that’s how he is. I didn’t know if I had that in me. To find out after the fight that I could go through that and I could take a punch and I had the heart. I have heart, I know I’m strong, I know that stuff, but I didn’t know if I had that round three and made it, to get that if showed me that I had that in me.”

Witt is now taking on Philip Rowe at the upcoming UFC Fight Night 200. While talking with Sherdog, he also discussed his training camp, his new contract and more.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro
(00:48) Running his business
(01:55) His fight with Barberena
(03:08) Wanting to retire, in case of loss
(03:45) Commenting on the judge who scored the fight a draw
(04:20) Getting a new contract
(05:25) His camp for Rowe
(07:25) Competing on cards headlined by Sean Strickland or Uriah Hall
(08:08) Picking Strickland vs. Jack Hermansson
(08:47) Calling out Max Griffin and picking his fight with Neil Magny
(09:45) Walking out to “Hustler’s Ambition” by 50 Cent
(11:25) Outro

Tudor Leonte started writing about mixed martial arts in 2013 for Italian media outlets. His journey with Sherdog began in 2018 and he now covers One Championship and countless European shows. You can follow him on Twitter @MrTudorLeonte.