The best and worst from UFC 223

#3 Worst: Joe Lauzon’s time is up

It's probably time for Joe Lauzon to retire

Father Time catches up with every fighter eventually and this year alone we’ve seen the likes of Thiago Alves and Cat Zingano downed by younger, rising stars, but in those two examples, the fighters that beat them (Curtis Millender and Ketlen Vieira) seem to have bright futures ahead of them. In the case of Joe Lauzon last night, he was destroyed by Chris Gruetzemacher – a fighter who had lost his previous two fights and is a million miles away from title contention.

This was Lauzon’s third loss in a row, and his second by TKO. His heart kept him in the fight to an extent as Gruetzemacher was unable to put him down – his corner smartly stopped the fight after a horrific second round – but it’s hard to see any fighter take that kind of damage. Lauzon also didn’t look like he was in the same physical shape that he once was, and it’s hardly surprising really.

‘J-Lau’ is a fighter who’s been competing in the UFC for 12 years now, and he’s had some absolute wars during his 26-fight tenure. Prior to his UFC run, he’d already had 16 professional fights and this bout with Gruetzemacher was his 42nd.

To be quite frank, it’s time for Lauzon to hang it up. He’s put on some tremendously entertaining fights over the years but it’s hard to see a fighter with such intelligence away from the cage put himself through such punishment when he’s clearly got nothing left in the tank. Who really wants to see another fight like last night’s from him?