Jimmie Rivera was scheduled to fight Marlon Vera next weekend at UFC 247, but he pulled out of the bout due to injury.
An injured Rivera doesn’t know when he’ll fight next, but one thing the fighter knows is when the professional MMA career will come to an end.
“I knew I always wanted to take it as far as I could, I never thought I’d get this far. There is a lot I still have left. The plan is to fight till 34 or 35. I still have a couple of years to go,” said Rivera to Bloody Elbow. “It’s really more of a mental aspect than anything to see who you really are as a person. What you can really do.”
Rivera is currently 30 years old, so if he follows the retirement plan, fans can expect to see Rivera fight for another four-plus years.
The fighter is coming off of a loss to Petr Yan at UFC 238 and if a rematch is offered down the line, it would be a fight that Rivera would readily accept.
“Yeah, I think so,” Rivera said. “Yan is a tough S.O.B. and I think if I ever had the chance to take a rematch with him I wouldn’t turn it down. It’s kind of interesting to see what happens with the division because supposedly Aldo and Henry Cejudo are going to fight maybe (in) May.”
There is no word yet on when Rivera will return from injury or whom that bout will come against.
