Six years after he made his professional debut, UFC veteran and lightweight fan favorite Jorge Gurgel has severed ties with UFC.  The send-off comes in the heels of a tough unanimous decision loss against Aaron Riley in UFC 91, where he earned a $60,000 bonus.  UFC 91 won “Fight of the Night” honors – his second of such award.  Yet along with the fat paycheck came his walking papers.

Within minutes of being released by UFC, Gurgel acquired a multi-fight deal with California-based Strikeforce, a world-class MMA cage fight promotion.

“I am excited.  To me, this is like a new start.  I'm coming in fresh.  I'm re-motivated and excited to mix things up in Strikeforce,” said Brazil-born Gurgel, 31, who relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio ten years ago.  “I've said it before and I will say it until the end of my career – my job is to get a name, date, and a location. That's why I have a manager.  Different fighters do this for different reasons and I respect that.  I don't call people out. I just like to fight.  I do not care.”

While he is excited about the deal, Gurgel cannot help but be disappointed with severing ties from UFC.  "It's not a happy moment," Gurgel says.  "It's very humiliating, and it's a crushing of my childhood dream."

Meanwhile, part of his reason may be due to the need to adjust his strategy.  He had been criticized in the past for not displaying what he does best as a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, yet still maintaining the same degree of intensity he has shown in his seven-fight run in the UFC.

"I'm so sick of people asking why I don't do jiu-jitsu," Gurgel says.  "So I'm going to start doing it so people can shut up, 'Why don't you do jiu-jitsu?'  Come on, man.  I'm going to do a lot of things differently in Strikeforce.  I will always bring the same intensity and I'm always going to fight 110 percent.  I just want to be able to use everything that I know.”


-Glenn L. Diaz, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: MMA Torch, MMA Junkie
(Image Courtesy of Jorge Gurgel.com)