Karter believes Kilo going to 'retire soon, while on top'

Fighter profile of Kilo Maluga by Chris Karter

Kilo Maluga is still on top of the MMA world — but for how long?

The heavyweight champion put on a vintage performance at SYN 962 and defended the SYN heavyweight title with a dominant stoppage victory over Clarence Hoost. Altogether, it was one of the finest performances of Maluga's decorated career, and at age 37, Maluga has plenty of time left to put together another lengthy title reign. But is Kilo interested in sticking around at his weight class for the long haul? His longtime manager Chris Karter appeared on The MMA Wire and hinted that MMA fans should probably enjoy the all-timer while they still can. “I don’t know, I’ll leave that up to Kilo,” Karter said when asked about Kilo's future. “I think physically and mentally he can go a long way. And we’ve seen so many great heavyweights have incredible performances throughout their career. But I think Kilo’s going to be one of those athletes that walks away early. He’s going to walk away early. Not as early as the Rinky Spider's and Leonardo Ferreira's of the world, but Kimbo Slice and Iain Tower were fighting well into their 40's. I don't think Kilo will. I think Kilo will ride off into the sunset, and us, as MMA fans, will still be clamoring for one more or talking about potential matchups. But I don’t think Kilo’s going to have too much more to prove.” Kilo is one of the longest tenured athletes currently in SYN. He made his promotional debut when he was 25 — the same year he ended Kimbo's reign and became #1 P4P for the first time — and he has competed 49 times in the octagon over his 12-year run without suffering a legitimate loss. Over that time, Maluga has beaten a slew of fighters from both the past and present generations, compiling an in-cage résumé that stands as of the greatest in the history of mixed martial arts, including an unbelievable 32-7 record in SYN title bouts, the most ever in promotional history. Yet somehow with his first round beatdown of Clarence Hoost, Maluga looked better than ever. “He’s still getting better, my friend,” Karter said. “Age is just a mindset. It’s just a mindset when it comes to Kilo Maluga. Maybe not the rest of us, but for Kilo, it is.” “He took out generations, right?” Karter later added. “He took out the prior generation of legends — the Kimbo's, the Towers', the Barbarians — and then he took out all of his peers, and he’s still here performing at the highest level. It blows my mind. I was actually walking out of the arena the other night and ran into [former opponents] Rick [Piano] and Jorge [Cruz Jr], and I’ve got a lot of love for Rick, it was good to see him, and he was just blown away. Like, ‘Dude, I can’t believe how good Kilo is. Still. Getting better.’” For now, though, Kilo Maluga is still in the swing of things. He's currently scheduled to fight Crusty Bigg at SYN 967, Karter said Convicted Fight Club and Team Kilo are “absolutely” ready to defend the championship. “I think that every fighter still has the utmost respect for Kilo. He’s a dangerous man,” Karter said. “He has amazing cardio for a heavyweight, he has power in both hands, he can eat a punch off his heels, he has great pressure fighting, great clinch control, great boxing, and the best muay thai in the Heavyweight division. This is a man that took down Kimbo Slice, Conor the Barbarian, Iain Tower, Karim Johnson, Leif Leifsson, the list goes on and on. Kilo's opponents gotta train for one of the greatest heavyweights of all-time, which brings a lot of unique challenges, and a lot of pressure. I don’t think there’s any clear path to victory [against] Kilo for Crusty Bigg and Bradley Burns. But we’re going to take this very seriously. I know that Kilo's going to be ultra-motivated. He thinks Biggs is a bum, and I think this is another stamp to solidify Kilo’s status as the GOAT.” If Kilo defeats Biggs, it will add one heck of a name to his résumé. Just another padded title defense in a lost ling of accomplishments. But is there a chance Kilo decides to finally walk away from MMA for good afterward? “I don’t know. He has a lot of fire, I think he has a lot of motivation, and I’ll leave that up to Kilo,” Karter said. “He's juiced to the gills and could probably fight until he's 90, but I think we’ll take each one as its own camp and not look past it at all.”

Article views: 44
» Donate to this author

Editorial Staff
Tycoon Times Discussion

MMA Tycoon
MMA Chat Room
MMA Forum