Still considering retirement, UFC's Bobby Green not sure he can ever please both fans and judges

Bobby Green

Bobby Green (23-6 MMA, 4-1 UFC) didn’t really enjoy his Thanksgiving. Sure, the time with family was great, but Green is still steaming after a unanimous-decision loss to Edson Barboza (15-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) and isn’t certain whether or not he wants to continue in the sport.

“I’m still contemplating whether I’m going to retire or not,” Green told MMAjunkie. “I’m just not sure. I feel like I kind of got robbed. I felt like it was a close fight. I’m not saying Barboza didn’t do his thing, but even the things he did, they looked bigger than they were.

“Normally, the way it works is you crack a guy, he stumbles, and you chase his ass and finish him up. Barboza is a great finisher, and all of a sudden he’s not trying to finish me? I felt like I was the aggressor the whole time. I controlled the center of the cage. He had a couple of leg kicks.”

Green and Barboza met in the co-main event of this past weekend’s UFC Fight Night 57 event in Texas. While the bout was expected to produce “Fight of the Night” fireworks, Barboza took a more measured approach to the contest, choosing to fight on the outside and offer counter strikes as he shifted from side to side. That allowed Green to attack from the center of the cage for nearly the entirety of the fight, a fact he assumed would earn him some favor from the judges.

“I thought it was based on cage control, effective striking, aggression and all these different things that we base a fight on,” Green said. “I don’t know. I thought I was doing fine. I wanted to stand up with a muay Thai striker. I wanted to prove that I can take his best, no problem. He was the one having trouble with my style.”

Barboza’s best moment certainly came in the second round, when a powerful hook, followed by a spinning heel kick, wobbled Green momentarily. Yet Green would actually finish that frame with one more strike, 17 to Barboza’s 16, according to a FightMetric report. Green also earned a slight advantage in the third round, landing 16 total strikes to Barboza’s 14, according to the same statistics.

Yet when the judges turned in their cards, all three had the fight 30-27 for Barboza.

“I felt like the first round was pretty close,” Green said. “I think the stats showed he had a few more strikes, but I had the takedown, so with the takedown, I thought I took the first round. And I thought I took the third round, so I get one and three, and I give him two. I don’t understand how he wins when he’s not the aggressive one.”

Green admitted before the matchup that he was already contemplating retirement, despite enjoying more notoriety than ever before in his career and likely entering his athletic prime at just 28 years old. The result against Barboza did little to sway him toward continuing his fighting career. In fact, the judges’ scores may have even pushed him the opposite direction, as he believes officials may simply not be able to fully appreciate what his unique fighting style, complete with the occasional taunt and dusted shoulder, truly offers in the cage.

“I learned that my style is very distasteful,” Green said. “That’s what I’m learning. People don’t like that I do all of this, like pointing to my shoulder. People think I’m trying to be cool. No, I’m trying to say, ‘This is where he hit me at: my shoulder.’ I’m trying to let you know, ‘This is where he hit me.’ He didn’t hit me in the face, where everybody thinks he hit me. He’s hitting me with some shots, but not as many as they’re giving credit to.

“My style’s very different. I’m trying to roll. I’ve got this Philly Shell style that I use, and it looks like guys are hitting me, but I’m absorbing it around my body, not on my face.”

Green said in the immediate aftermath of the fight with Barboza, he asked UFC officials for a rematch but was flatly denied. Now he’s a little bit disenchanted with the state of the sport, and he’s not sure whether or not he can successfully continue to put on a show for fans while also doing the things judges want to see to award rounds.

“If I do come back, I think I need to change my approach,” Green said. “My fighting style is very misunderstood. People think because I’m doing what I’m doing that I’m cocky and arrogant. People get angry at me – and I wish guys wouldn’t run so much. I don’t want to put on some little sparring match. I want to put on a fight.

“I beat guys where they’re best at. I want people to know I came ready. If it’s a striker, I’ll beat him striking. If it’s a jiu-jitsu guy, I’ll beat him in jiu-jitsu. If it’s a wrestler, I’ll beat him in wrestling. That’s all I was trying to showcase – that I am legitimate.”

It would seem a waste of talent for Green to walk away from the sport right now. After all, while the loss was disappointing, Barboza is one of the best in the sport and is currently ranked at No. 13 in the latest USA TODAY Sports/MMAjunkie MMA lightweight rankings, and Green enjoyed an eight-fight winning streak before the setback.

Green hasn’t yet set a timetable for making a decision, but if he does does return to the cage, he isn’t interested in fighting someone who’s looking to do anything other than come forward and make an earnest effort to score “Fight of the Night” honors.

“Whoever signs to fight me better know they’re in a fight,” Green said. “Everybody said I should have just wrestled Barboza, but I’m trying to make a fight happen.”

For complete coverage of UFC Fight Night 57, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

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