Niko Price’s Retirement Reversal Brings a Finish-Heavy Risk Profile Back to UFC Vegas 122

Niko Price apparently has one more fight left after all. BJPenn.com reports that the 36-year-old will reverse his retirement and face Leon Shahbazyan on Oct. 10 at UFC Vegas 122, with the bout at the UFC Apex intended to be Price’s final appearance.

The reversal matters to bettors because Price does not return as a neutral, low-variance veteran. His UFC archive shows a fighter whose wins and losses have repeatedly resolved through finishes, while his underlying striking numbers expose him to the same kind of volatility. That profile immediately puts distance, total-round and method-of-victory markets in focus.

It does not, however, create a bet by itself. PropBetEdge does not yet have a linked bout, verified prices, graded projection or database profile for Shahbazyan. Price’s history can identify the markets most sensitive to this news, but it cannot establish which side of those markets carries value.

Price returns on the most fragile run of his UFC tenure

Price has lost four straight since beating Alex Morono by unanimous decision at UFC 302 in June 2024. The sequence has become progressively more damaging from a betting perspective: a three-round decision loss to Themba Gorimbo, a second-round submission loss to Jacobe Smith, a first-round knockout loss to Nikolay Veretennikov and a first-round submission loss to Michael Chiesa.

Three of those four defeats ended inside the distance. The last two lasted less than one full round apiece, and the Chiesa loss came only 50 days after the knockout defeat to Veretennikov. Price has now had 167 days away from competition, but the available data does not establish whether that interval repaired any of the defensive problems behind those results.

The broader sample points in the same direction. Across 21 archived bouts, Price has eight wins and 11 losses, with two other results reflected in his overall 16-11 record as no contests. Six of his eight archived wins came by knockout, technical knockout or submission, producing a 75% finish rate on wins. That percentage is supported by eight wins rather than a tiny two- or three-fight sample, but it still describes only his victories; it should not be mistaken for the probability that this particular matchup ends early.