“I’m feeling that it’s pretty much a done deal,” Gustafsson said (transcript via MMA Fighting). “If you don’t feel you have it in you anymore then it is what it is. I had three title fights and, like I said, it’s been a great journey. This is it.”
“I feel like I don’t do this for money or because of anything else,” Gustafsson said. “I do this because I want to be the best and beat the best and if I can’t do that then it is what it is. I lost to Jon and that was the third title fight and I felt like because I got a little bit of an injury in that fight and I didn’t get to show my capacity. So I had some hope in me still and I felt this Anthony Smith fight would be a great comeback and start climbing again. But now I lose to Anthony too. It feels like I don’t have it in me anymore. It’s like a confirmation to myself because I lost my three title fights.”
“I felt it’s an honorable way to tell the crowd and the audience here tonight that this a decision I made,” he said.