Fighters who retired too early

[HHJ]

Zabit

 

[AmericanMMA]

Phillip Miller… oh what could have been

Phillip Miller MMA Stats, Pictures, News, Videos, Biography - Sherdog.com

The industry pioneer in UFC, Bellator and all things MMA (aka Ultimate Fighting). MMA news, interviews, pictures, videos and more since 1997.

www.sherdog.com

 

[whooty]

Chuck Lidell

 

[Goatenstein]

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.

How many more undersized terrible cans could Carano fight? Probably a lot she got pretty fat. Konrad was smart and knew he was boring as fuck and latched on to the family business instead. Arona just wasn't motivated by stepping down to UFC level.

 

[Xanzito]

Arlovski...

...wait, you're telling me the dude is still fighting?

 

[blaseblase]

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

You copied my thread from two weeks ago

Fighters who retired too early

I always think of Chad Mendes. He was 33 and ran into Alexander Volkanovski who was unheralded and ranked 10th at the time. He almost put Volk out at one point but got overwhelmed by the pace and finished. He took that as a sign he was past it and retired. Then Volk goes on an insane run and...

forums.sherdog.com

 

[JPW328]

Adlan Amagov

Adlan Amagov - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[JPW328]

Phillip Miller… oh what could have been

Phillip Miller MMA Stats, Pictures, News, Videos, Biography - Sherdog.com

The industry pioneer in UFC, Bellator and all things MMA (aka Ultimate Fighting). MMA news, interviews, pictures, videos and more since 1997.

www.sherdog.com

100%. Crazy Bob Cook also retired undefeated, but he was only 5-0.

 

[Morris88]

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.

Was it the Aldo fight where he got that fucking alien baby hematoma? That thing was gnarly

 

[JPW328]

Adlan Amagov. He retired on a UFC win streak at like age 29.

 

[JPW328]

You copied my thread from two weeks ago

Fighters who retired too early

I always think of Chad Mendes. He was 33 and ran into Alexander Volkanovski who was unheralded and ranked 10th at the time. He almost put Volk out at one point but got overwhelmed by the pace and finished. He took that as a sign he was past it and retired. Then Volk goes on an insane run and...

forums.sherdog.com

I posted in yours too . lol

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

I'll say Rich Franklin, I still think he had a lot left.

Khabib is one of the very obvious ones, I feel like he was only starting to get going in terms of facing top 10 opponents, he fought a few top 10 guys and then all of a sudden was retired. All in all its a shame

 

[HuskySamoan]

Gsp had a few more fights in him imo.
Khabib had a few as well
Is Gregor still competing or did he retire?

GSP had knee surgery in 2011, 2013 and 2014 just that I know about. I felt like he was slowing down around the Diaz fight and shit was really catching up to him. Not sure when he became a father, but he made his fortune, had tons of injuries and was champ forever. I think he left at the right time. Guys like Lawler, Hendricks, Woodley, Rory etc. Were hungry wolves coming over the hills GSP was pretty worn out physically and mentally.

 

[HuskySamoan]

Adlan Amagov. He retired on a UFC win streak at like age 29.

View attachment 1047287

Amagov and Zabit are huge ones, Adam Khaliev is another...insanely talented striker was rumored to be signed by the UFC after beating Magomedkerimov (former PFL champ) but then never debuted and didn't fight for like 10 years. A lot of Caucasian fighters lose their visa like Frodo Khasbulaev mid career and can never fight stateside again, or they get tied up with mafia shit or have some sort of odd religious awakening.

Daniel Puder is another weird one. There's gotta be a ton.

 

[Norcim]

Back in the day I thought GSP retired too early (the first time). He always seemed to learn from mistakes and past fights and I thought he would have figured out how to beat someone like Hendricks in future fights and stay champ for a long time.
But as time has gone on I have changed my mind to think he retired at the right time. As good as he was I think he was at his peak and probably would have only gone down if he kept fighting regularly.

 

[TheHotness]

Igor vovchanchen and arona

 

[Slapjit]

My yute Big Mac was undefeated him had a slick 1-2 pull counter and deadly overhandz BOTH SIDES still got it too but bro got hooked on yay ain't never scrap again affi dat LMFAOLLL

One tayum we broke into di zoo to smoke a spliff n play widdi animals later Mac jumped into di wrong exhibit bro had to scrap widda bear fam no caps str8 knock di bear out COLD with a overhand I snapped a pic just can't find it rn imma look tho

 

[Otto!]

No fighter retires to early.. MMA is a brutal sport that takes a terrible toll on your body.

This. Way too many fighters retire too late, so I’ll never blame anyone who leaves on his own terms instead of chasing the end of a 8 fight losing streak.

 

[P4p Islam]

I always think of Chad Mendes. He was 33 and ran into Alexander Volkanovski who was unheralded and ranked 10th at the time. He almost put Volk out at one point but got overwhelmed by the pace and finished. He took that as a sign he was past it and retired. Then Volk goes on an insane run and becomes one of the greatest fighters of all time.

I wouldn't see Mendes ever winning a title but he could have been a contender for at least the next few years. I think he smokes the good not great guys hanging around the top 5 now like Ortega and Yair.

One of the greatest fighters of all time? What?


When does decisioning max holloway make you the goat? Islam sent him to the shadow realm with ease.

 

[Deleted member 110072]

I think you could argue a lot of ex soviet guys involved in RINGS could probably have carried on for longer but when the org went down there was not really anywhere with a mass demand for such fighters, the very best guys like Fedor, Sergei, Arlovski etc obviously had a place but it wasnt really until the 2010's that MMA orgs worked out that Russians/Central Asians/Eastern Europeans were a good way to top up your roster on the cheap.