Boston Salmon pondered retirement after brutal illegal knee: “This could potentially ruin my career”

On July 15, Boston Salmon joined host Michael Fiedel on Fighting Words to discuss the fallout from the devastating illegal knee that ended his fight with Shawn West at LFA 84.

Salmon confirmed that – after weeks of appointment delays and reschedulings in part due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic – that his “orbital bone and [zygamotic] arch [are] cracked.” Additionally, Salmon says on-scene doctors – who he believes to be affiliated with the South Dakota Athletic Commission – erred by not sending him to the hospital immediately following the bout.

After about four hours in a hotel room after the event, Salmon says the concerns of his parents, team, and girlfriend finally pushed him to go to the hospital. Salmon says that he was considering retiring from MMA as a result of the injuries he sustained throughout his career, ending with the LFA 84 blow, and his recent career setbacks creating an arduous road back to the UFC fraught with little financial security relative to damage accrued.

“This could be the last fight of my career. I don’t know. I don’t want to speak before I make a decision, but this could potentially ruin my career,” said Salmon the week after the event. “I want the safety out there not just for myself but for the future fighters that are up-and-coming,” said Salmon.

“I get it, we’re in a fight, and I’m willing to give it all I can in the cage, but shots like this shouldn’t be acceptable and there should be consequences… Maybe the commissions need to be a lot more strict and they need to set better guidelines for the safety of fighters, you know, and if this doesn’t work any time soon, this could be really bad in the future for fighters that take severe damage like this. I don’t want this to happen to anyone else. I get mistakes do happen, but how can we be responsible about this, you know, and take better precautions about illegal blows like this in mixed martial arts.”

Make sure to watch this episode of Fighting Words with Michael Fiedel and hit the subscribe button for more content like this!