Middleweight contender and mixed martial arts veteran Cung Le personally requested for the release of his running UFC contract.
During an interview with Josh Gross in his "Gross Point Blank" podcast, the 42-year old Vietnamese-American fighter revealed his intents to have his contract ended, mainly due to disagreements with the UFC top management.
"I'd just prefer not to be part of the UFC anymore," Le said outright. "I'd prefer not to put the effort into something I don't believe in anymore."
In August, Le had engaged in a hard-fought battle scheduled for five rounds, with fellow veteran and middleweight contender Michael "The Count" Bisping for the usual Fight Night event by the UFC in what is now considered as Asia's fight mecca, Macau, China. Unfortunately, he lost the fight via fourth round technical knockout.
To add insult to injury, Le had been reported to test positive for human growth hormones during the post-fight drug test. This subsequently led the UFC to impose a nine-month suspension on Le, but extended it to a full year, soon after.
But after the fighter made an appeal, the UFC eventually reversed their suspension on Le, including the drug test results.
In another report by MMAFighting.com, Le expressed his intent to cut ties with the UFC through his manager Gary Ibarra, who also appeared on the same podcast.
According to him, Le was hurt the most by how his reputation as a fighter and martial artist was tarnished by the accusations brought about by the alleged erroneous drug test results. Ibarra also says that the UFC should not be conducting their own drug testing procedures and should instead leave it up to professionals.
"A family man, a true embodiment of what martial arts is: Respect, honor, he embodied all of those things," Ibarra explained. "And now hii career will ever be tarnished, or forever have something of an asterisk next to it, due to something that is no fault of his own. Does anybody deserve that? No, absolutely not."
Meanwhile, Le also said that he is not closing his doors on competing professionally just yet. In fact, he states that if there was anybody he would fight for as of the moment, it would be Bellator FC CEO Scott Coker.
"If I would fight for anyone, it would be Scott Coker," he said. "I would not fight for the UFC after what happened."
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