by Alex mattis
One couldn’t help but applaud and smile last Friday night as Jorge Rivera won the final fight of his MMA career. For a man who has had such an up-and-down career, and personal life, it felt just that he would go out with his hand raised.
“El Conquistador” made his MMA debut in 2001, long before the period of swelled audience and interest the sport is experiencing now. He worked the smaller shows for two years until the middleweight was called up to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. At UFC 44, Rivera made his octagon debut and he scored a gigantic upset when he defeated David Loiseau. The four years that followed saw Rivera in-and-out of the UFC and fighting the top competition in the middleweight division, including Rich Franklin and Anderson Silva. Rivera also appeared of the memorable fourth season of The Ultimate Fighter, “The Comeback.”
In August of 2008, Rivera experienced personal devastation when his 17-year-old daughter unexpectedly passed away following a fatal reaction to medication. Understandably so, Rivera’s fighting vocation went on a hiatus.
After a ten-month layoff, Rivera returned and went on the most significant winning streak of his career; winning three straight bouts in the UFC. This success led to the highest profile fight of Rivera’s career against Michael Bisping at UFC 127 last February. Rivera did a fabulous job of hyping the fight and created a great amount interest leading into the event. Despite one of the best weigh-in stare-downs in history, Rivera was unable to defeat Bisping and was TKO’d in the 2nd round.
Eric Schafer served as Rivera’s final opponent last Friday in Nashville, TN. The 1st round was all Schafer, as he scored repeated take downs and gained several profitable positions. However, Rivera never lost his calm and was able to come back strong in the 2nd as he completely overwhelmed Schafer, forcing the referee to call off the bout at 1:31 of the round.
Rivera was one of the last of a fading generation of MMA fighters. He was one of the remaining “old school” guys who didn’t get in to the game when the iron was hot, but quite the opposite. He was in the Lytle, Serra, Sherk, etc. class of fighters who were working for the UFC while it was molding the shape it’s taken today. This, of course, meant that he was one of the guys whom the sport passed by but fortunately he was wise enough to recognize it.
In the vein of Chris Lytle, who also retired within the past year, Rivera won’t go down in the history books as a Liddell, Ortiz, or Couture but he certainly will be remembered as one of the integral fighters of that era in mixed martial arts.
For giving a large chunk of your life to this whacky sport, for consistently giving us entertaining fights and interviews, and for being one of the dudes who laid the brick for the road we’ve followed… Thank you, Jorge Rivera. Best wishes to you and your life outside the crazy world of MMA.
