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Gray Maynard hasn't competed in an MMA fight since losing to Nick Lentz at UFC 229. Standing with a record of 13-7-1, Gray Maynard was released from the UFC after suffering a defeat at UFC 229. Now almost two years later, Gray Maynard has come out and spoke to BJPenn.com about his future plans, what is he going to do now that he doesn't have a UFC contract and more.
Gray Maynard first spoke about retirement and revealed that Dana White had once forced him into considering retirement. He revealed that UFC had signed him for an eight-fight contract in 2014 but started putting pressure on him to retire after one fight.
“Of course I want to keep on fighting. I don’t want to retire with the UFC and I never did. Dana signed me to an eight-fight contract in 2014. One fight into the contract he asked me to retire. That is a negotiation tactic where he put in a ton of marketing dollars where he doesn’t want me to fight somewhere else but he doesn’t want to pay me anymore. If I retired under him I couldn’t go anywhere else.”
Gray Maynard said that he had been inactive for some time because his wife was pursuing a master's degree. Gray Maynard also added that before quarantine hit, he was in talks with the Bellator.
"I’ve been laying low a lot lately because my wife was getting through her masters degree. Before quarantine hit, I was talking to Bellator and seeing what interest was there,” he revealed."
Gray Maynard on a potential fourth fight against Edgar
Gray Maynard also spoke about a potential fight with Frankie Edgar. Gray Maynard has fought three times against Frankie Edgar and the total score is 1-1-1. Despite the fact that Edgar has moved down to featherweight, Gray Maynard seemed interested in the fight but made it clear that the fight would not happen in the UFC.
“The Edgar fourth fight. He is a legend and we are 1-1-1. He dropped down to 145 and now is going to 135. I have fought at 145 but I don’t think he would ever get out of the UFC and I don’t want to fight him in the UFC. It would always be a great fight. I could never fight in the UFC again.”
The fourth fight between Gray Mayard and Frankie Edgar does sound fun. However, the possibility right now seems slim.
