UFC Signs Paul Craig To New Four Fight Contract
Paul Craig was recently seen defeating Magomed Ankalaev by last second submission on the UFC Fight Night London preliminary card.
The win would lead to the UFC giving Craig a new four fight contract, but the fighter would have retired in he had lost to Ankalaev last weekend.
“If the UFC didn’t offer me a new contract, I wasn’t going to fight anymore,” Craig told Metro. “I’d already made that decision before the fight. When you set yourself goals, you can’t settle for second best. … Why would I accept to fight in another promotion? Against weaker opponents? It’s not about the money for me, but it would have been for less money. I was fighting with the attitude that if I lost, then I would end my career not only as a UFC fighter, but an MMA fighter.”
Craig went 2-2-0 in his first run with the UFC, with those victories coming over the aforementioned Magomed Ankalaev and Henrique Da Silva.
A newly re-signed Craig admits that the bout against Ankalaev was a special one for him.
“You’re always anxious coming into a fight, but this one was special,” Craig said. “There was more anxiety because it was a dangerous fight and I was coming to the end of my contract. I was coming off two losses. There was the fear that my UFC dream was coming to an end. Backs against the wall, in the last second, to win a new contract.”
There is no bout announced yet for Craig now that he is still under the UFC umbrella, but that announcement could come anytime now.
