So in other words, Chris Lytle is letting the UFC know well ahead of time that if they need a short notice welterweight replacement, he’s available. Which is nice. I have to say, I’m not entirely shocked that the guy is saying he’s not retired almost two years after coming out and saying he’s retired, it seems like that is the sporting way.
But still, can anyone stay retired in this sport? If anyone went out in the perfect way, it was Chris. If you need a reminder, he retired on a fight of the night and submission of the night win in the main even of the last UFC on Versus against Dan Hardy in August of 2010, now he wants to ruin that perfect moment. Bummer? Kinda.
Here’s what he said to BJPenn.com:
“I can’t say it’s always closed. I’ve made this comment to them before, I said, ‘hey man, I’m not willing to put in eight weeks of training but if you called me and said, hey, I have this possible fight Chris. Somebody backed out and we need you in a week. We need you in five days, we need you here. I could take it.
There’s a couple guys I do want to fight on short notice because I wouldn’t have to spend all that time away from my family and, like I said, I’m still training some, I still feel like I’m in good shape right now. And as veteran I know how to condition myself to where I could last three rounds. So, you never know. If you have something last minute, let me know.
That’s the only way I could see it. If it was like two weeks before a fight or something, but you give me two months I don’t think I could…I mean, I can’t say never. There is a couple possibilities if they said, if Dana or somebody came to me and said, hey Chris, I would really like you to do this, take this certain fight for one reason. I’d say ok, I can do one but I’m not planning on coming back long term. I could do something possibly but I definitely don’t see that happening but you never can tell.”
Is it a testament of Lytle’s old-school nature and character that he is two years removed from his last fight and only wants short notice fights, while some, ahem, champions nowadays won’t fight on short notice even when they have the extremely clear advantage? Maybe.
