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Fighters who retired too early

IF you have been following MMA for a while, sometimes you wonder where the time has gone. It feels like it was just yesterday that this brash irish kid Conor had this spectacular debut, I mean where has time gone? MMA can be unpredictable, and only thing that seems to be predictable about it is that time, is undefeated, and no matter how good you are, if you keep fighting on, you will eventually go down just like any other.

Worse yet, it seems difficult to call it quits when time calls for it. Yet, there have been fighters who, not undefeated, but stepped away, for one reason or another, much earlier than we'd have liked. Which fighters comes to mind for you?

Michael McDonald was 19-4 and 27 years old when he retired, going 6-3 in UFC only losing to prime Barao and prime Faber at 22 years old and against prime Lineker.

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TJ Grant was 21-5 and 29 years old when he last fought. Not sure when exactly he officially retired. He was 8-3 in UFC only losing to prime Dong, prime Hendricks and Almeida.

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Chris Holdsworth was 6-0 pro, 3-0 in Tuf, 4-0 amatuer, and was 21 years old when he got his BJJ black belt. Nowadays, everyone and their mom seems to have BJJ black belt nowadays, but it wasn't like that back then. Last having fought at 27 years old.

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Tom Duquesnoy was 16-2, 2-1 in UFC, and was 25 years old when he retired from MMA.

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Zabit Magomedsharipov was 18-1, 6-0 in UFC, was 28 years old when he last fought in MMA, and officially retired at 31. Fortunately for Yair, he never had to fight Zabit. Though given his development, the ducking narrative, likely true, may have changed since.

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I cannot think anyone big in the UFC. Maybe Khabib could have had a few more fights.

Arona, Gina Carano and Cole Konrad are some non-UFC fighters.

Khabib went out before he lost and he would have in my opinion so he did it the best for himself.

Thought about Arona but thought he was a bit older. But totally Konrad. Forgot about him.
 
I cannot think anyone big in the UFC. Maybe Khabib could have had a few more fights.

Arona, Gina Carano and Cole Konrad are some non-UFC fighters.
i looked into kole konrad. seems like a really cool dude. he retired for the best reason, which is that he didn’t wanna do it anymore. it’s never too early to live your best life.
 
memories were telling me Mark Hominick but after a quick search i realize that he went 0-2 after the Aldo-Zombie fights, i genuinely remembered that he quit after the Zombie ko.
 
It's never too early if the fighter thinks its the right move.

I suppose the correct answer is the fighters that make a comeback, like Jimmy Flick or Henry Cejudo, but in terms of as a fan?

Yeah Duquesnoy was a good one, Khabib obviously, but it used to be that most fighters cut by the UFC instantly retired as there was no point. 30 year old guys just retiring.

That seems to have changed a bit now.
 
Mendes maybe? Lost against Volk in a dogfight, then decided to call it quits. To be fair he didn't know how good Volk would turn out to be.

I think he would have hung around in the top 5 for a while after. He would wrestle the hell out of Yair, and beat Ortega probably.
 
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