Cub Swanson reveals he almost made switch to boxing while under contract with WEC

Cub Swanson has been thinking about boxing long before it became popular for MMA fighters to dabble in the sweet science.

Swanson (27-12 MMA, 12-8 UFC) revealed that he was seriously considering taking up a pro boxing career while he was signed with the WEC, but matchmaker Sean Shelby put a stop to his request.

“I brought it up to Sean (Shelby) many, many times years ago,” Swanson told MMA Junkie Radio. “Even when I was in WEC, I asked if I could do boxing at the same time because my coaches were pretty impressed with how I was doing, and they said absolutely not. They told me that if I wasn’t focused 100 percent on MMA, then they would let me go. They said that they wanted all their fighters to be focused 100 percent on trying to win the belt.

“So I thought about switching to boxing for a while, and I just thought to myself what’s going to happen is I’m gonna spend three, four years at least trying to make it to the top, and then I’ll be right there possibly in the top 10, top 20, and then I’m going to be having to do that extra to make it to the very top. I’m already there right now in MMA, so it just didn’t make sense, and so I wasn’t able to do it.”

Swanson has always had a love for boxing, training with the likes of former pro boxer Joel Diaz and sparring with former boxing champion Timothy Bradley. He even tried boxing Paulie Malignaggi on the undercard of the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor fight in 2017, but the fight never came to fruition, despite Malignaggi verbally agreeing.

McGregor remains the only marquee fighter to box while under a UFC contract, and while it irks Swanson that he wasn’t granted that same opportunity, he understands why McGregor was the one who got to break that barrier.

“I was a little annoyed when the UFC allowed Conor to do it, but that was a lot of money to be made,” Swanson said. “I see why they would go that route, but I was definitely trying to do it a long time ago.”

To see the full interview with Swanson, check out the video below.