He’s made 205 for the final time, it seems, as Cyrille Diabate has announced before tonight’s fight that it will be his last. Diabate, who is scheduled to face Ilir Latifi, told MMA Junkie that he was retiring after the fight.
“The motivation when you’re 40 years old is your biggest enemy,” Diabate said. “You’ve got to keep something in your mind that motivates you. For this fight, the motivation was not stopping with that kind of performance and that kind of injury. It was easy for me to get in the gym every day and work my ass off.
“But after this fight, I don’t think anything is going to be motivating me enough to make those sacrifices and be in the gym daily.”
Diabate is coming off a TKO loss due to an injury at UFC on FUEL TV: Barao vs. McDonald in February of 2013. He made his debut in May 2010 with a TKO victory over Luiz Cane and is currently 4-3 in the UFC with losses to both of tonight’s main eventers; he couldn’t continue against Jimi Manuwa a year ago and was choked out by Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 120 in London, England, on the Bisping/Akiyama undercard.
