Watson: Resignation was not over dispute with Rousey, Dana, or Lorenzo

Burt Watson, the UFC’s “Babysitter to the Stars” retired unexpectedly during UFC 184. Rumors circulated that the cause involved a member of the Ronda Rousey’s camp, but that was credibly refuted by multiple sources.

Watson, 66, appeared recently on MMA Junkie Radio and explained that the resignation did not having anything to do with a fighter or a fighter’s camp. Transcription taken from MMAjunkie and by UGer mrichter.

When it happened, every UFC fighter with a Twitter account reached out positively with a unanimity that will not likely be seen again unless the Earth is attacked by aliens.

I have been working for so long in between boxing in MMA,” he said. “You work long and hard and fast. I swear man, I had no idea that I had touched that many people or even that many people knew what I was doing or how I was doing it until I had time to stop and actually see and hear it. It makes me kind of mushy, baby. I had no idea.

And Watson was explicit that it was not a dispute with UFC president Dana White or with UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta.

I never had a problem with Ronda Rousey, who is probably one of the sweetest – until she gets in the octagon – the sweetest person you’d know,” he said. “I’ve never had a problem with Mark Munoz. I’ve never had a problem with any fighter. I once had a problem with a corner person and we went face-to-face and settled it and squashed it and almost kissed afterwards. I’ve never had a problem.

When I started reading and hearing things that were being said about the fighters and their camps, I felt like I needed to say something. That’s not true. It didn’t happen. I’ve never had a fighter disrespect me, except once, in the last 12 years. I’ve never had a camp person disrespect me in the last 12 years. For the sake of them, I just wanted to say (this). You make your decisions and no one else has a part in them. I wanted to clear that up, because that’s what I’m hearing.

There’s an incident that happened in L.A., but for certain reasons I can’t be specific. Did someone say something to me I didn’t like? Yes. Did it escalate to another level? Yes, it did. A lot of it was me just being the person I am. If I feel like I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing and doing it right, it’s hard for me to adjust to someone telling me it’s been done wrong or that I did something I shouldn’t have done. I take pride in doing what I do, baby. I take pride in someone putting something in my hand and walking away and not worrying about it getting done or getting done right.

I’m a hood-rat from Philly – if someone says something sometime, I may not think it through to address it, but I’m going to address it with a swiftness, and quickly. The decision to leave L.A. was mine. It was mine. I’m not going to say someone told me that, ‘You can’t, or you better.’ Someone said something to me that they shouldn’t have, in my opinion. I said something out of disgust, and probably hurt, and probably at a point of feeling, ‘Hey, it didn’t happen like that.’ Because it didn’t.

I’m too old to regret decisions. I’m not at a point of my life of regretting what I do because you can’t backstep. Do I ever rethink situations? Yeah, you always think that. But I’m not going to do anything I regret. Believe me, when you get to a certain age in life, you can’t regret because you can’t back up. I still think I’m pretty good at what I do and I can still do that. I’m not regretful or anything of that nature.

Was the disagreement I had with someone else? Yes. But I did what I was supposed to do. When you get into a situation that’s heated sometimes, you’ll say anything. Sometimes you forget what you say. You go back and you say, ‘Oops.’ But when those words come out, you can’t pull them back.

When you step into the snow, you cannot backtrack those steps. You can’t do that. You can try to, but it’s not going to fit. I knew I was stepping in the snow heading in a certain direction when I did that. You can try, but it’s not going to fit.

I have always, always respected my name, my work and my work ethic. My presence. I’ve always respected what I did and how I did it cause that’s what we do and why we do it, baby. More than that I’ve always respected the athletes and I’ve always respected the people I’ve worked around. I’ll start by saying Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta, Donna Marcolini and the UFC always respected me. Always. I’ve never had a problem with being disrespected or pushed aside or mistreated. If that had been the case, to do that for 14 years would have been something. That was not the case.

I have, over the last couple years, realized how old I am and how much time I have left. But I wanted to savor that. There was always a time in my head where I knew I had to decide if I wasn’t going to do this anymore. Mentally, from a coordinators standpoint, I feel like I’m at the top of my game.

I have a family. I’ve got five grandchildren. Everybody needs to share time with family. My brain moves quicker than I do. My ability as a coordinator is something I’ve learned and honed over the past 30 years. Is my body tired and I need a little rest? Hell yes. Yes sir. You don’t realize that sometimes until you stop or hit a wall. I’m capable to move at a fast level. I went past the mental wall when I turned 30. I just kept going from there. I didn’t hit a physical wall. I got a little tired. There were times I was doing eight shows in 10 weeks at a pace sometimes I even looked at (as a lot). Those things happen. When they happen, do you need to pull back for a minute? Hell yeah. You need to make adjustments. I’ve been around the biggest and best athletes in the world and I’ve seen people hang around too long. You keep pushing and pushing and pushing. Sometimes you push and there’s nobody pulling, then you stop pushing and that s— rolls back on you.

I put that tweet out that I stepped aside – right now, that’s what I’m doing. I’m old enough. People want to retire at 60 or 50. I’m 66 and I’m still rolling.