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Retirement in MMA is always a bit of a touchy subject. Some fighters retire but simply can’t stay away from the game – like BJ Penn, who’s returned from the shelf on 3 occasions now. Others appear to hang up their gloves too soon and under surprising circumstances – Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson comes to mind – while others hang on for way too long.
As the UFC’s history gets deeper, more notable fighters seem to retire every year, and 2018 has been no different. We’ve seen more than one big-name star hang up their gloves this year – including a handful of former UFC champions – and given most of them are pretty old in MMA terms and look past their best, hopefully these retirements stick.
Here are 5 notable UFC fighters who retired in 2018.
#1 Michael Bisping
The first – and to date only – UFC champion from the UK, Michael Bisping actually fought his final UFC match in November 2017, but didn’t actually confirm an official retirement until late May 2018. The announcement hardly came as a surprise given Bisping – 39 years old - had been competing in the UFC for 12 years, debuting back in June 2006, and had a total of 29 UFC bouts under his belt.
The reasons for hanging it up that Bisping gave made total sense, too. Firstly, he’d reached his career goal by winning the UFC Middleweight title in 2016 by knocking out Luke Rockhold, a victory that was hugely unexpected given many fans had written him off as being past his best at that point. Essentially, ‘The Count’ had nothing more to prove.
And secondly, he’d suffered some serious injuries during his UFC tenure, but none more worrying than a torn retina in 2013. That injury kept him out for a solid year, and he continued to suffer from eye problems for the remainder of his career. Bisping even revealed that after his final loss to Kelvin Gastelum, he’d begun to have problems with his “good” eye, too.
A true legend of the Octagon, Bisping remains the biggest MMA star ever produced by the UK – sorry Dan Hardy – and will probably be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame sooner rather than later. With the UFC’s big move to ESPN on the horizon, Bisping will likely remain with the promotion as an analyst for the foreseeable future.
#2 Rashad Evans
Former UFC Light-Heavyweight champion Rashad Evans announced his official retirement from MMA in June 2018, a few weeks after suffering a pretty bad loss at the hands of Anthony Smith at UFC 225. It was Rashad’s fifth loss in a row, and after previously considering retirement a couple of years before, it was probably a case of the former champ hanging on for slightly too long.
A lot of fans tend to forget how good Evans was in his prime, but a glance at his record prior to 2013 tells the story. ‘Suga’ came off his victory on the second season of The Ultimate Fighter at 6-0, and went on to reel off 5 straight wins – and a controversial draw against Tito Ortiz – before stopping Forrest Griffin to win the Light-Heavyweight title in late 2008.
Sure, he lost the title in his first defense against Lyoto Machida, but after that he was still able to win a further 4 fights – including a huge grudge match with ‘Rampage’ Jackson – before failing in an attempt to dethrone former training partner and reigning Light-Heavyweight champ Jon Jones in 2012. That was probably the last time we saw Evans in his prime, as he went on to lose 6 of his final 8 fights, including that final horrible slide.
On the plus side for Evans, despite ending his career with a record of 19-8-1, only 3 of those losses came by KO or TKO, meaning he didn’t take a huge amount of damage inside the Octagon. Hopefully that holds him in good stead for a career as an analyst for the UFC on ESPN. Either way though, his decision to retire in 2018 was certainly the correct one.
#3 Thales Leites
It’s quite rare in MMA to see fighters go out with a victory – especially in the UFC, which is a promotion that’s been built on the back of ageing fighters losing to up-and-coming stars – but that’s exactly what former Middleweight title challenger Thales Leites managed to do in 2018. The Brazilian decided to hang up his gloves following his September victory over Hector Lombard.
It was a bit of a strange journey for Leites, who debuted in the UFC back in 2006. The submission expert came into the Octagon at 9-0, and after a tight loss to Martin Kampmann in his debut, he managed to put together an impressive 5-fight win streak that put him in line for a shot at Anderson Silva’s Middleweight title.
Leites lost that fight, but it was such a disappointing showing that the UFC chose to release him after a controversial loss to Alessio Sakara a couple of months later. It looked like his career at the top was over, but Leites managed to put together a 6-1 record on the smaller circuit that caused the UFC to bring him back in 2013.
Upon his return, Leites found himself in title contention after winning 5 in a row, but losses in big fights against Michael Bisping and Gegard Mousasi kept him away from the very top of the division. Even at the end, with a handful of losses, Leites didn’t look too far past his best – but concerns about his future health ended up pushing him to retire, a decision which is probably for the best.
#4 Jake Ellenberger
Once one of the most feared Welterweights in the world, Jake Ellenberger retired in the summer following a loss to Bryan Barbarena. The defeat was Ellenberger’s 4th in a row, all of which came by KO or TKO, and it’d be hard to argue that ‘The Juggernaut’ probably hung on for at least one or two fights too many.
In the middle of 2013 Ellenberger had a seriously impressive 8-2 UFC record including wins over Diego Sanchez, Nate Marquardt and Jake Shields, but a disappointing loss to Rory MacDonald that summer represented a watershed moment, as he went on to lose his next two fights in disappointing fashion. A 2015 win over Josh Koscheck seemed to turn things around for him, but 2 losses swiftly followed that.
Ellenberger’s last win came in July 2016 over Matt Brown, but realistically, it was perhaps the worst thing that could’ve happened to him as it led to him taking those final 4 fights past his prime. Jorge Masvidal, Mike Perry, Ben Saunders and finally Barbarena then knocked him out in violent fashion – a sad ending to what was a hell of a career.
Ellenberger claimed he didn’t plan to retire after the Barbarena loss – which came in his home state of Nebraska – but stated that his future with his children was the key to his decision. He also stated that he doesn’t plan to make his retirement temporary – which is probably the correct decision given the decline of his durability towards the end of his career.
#5 Johny Hendricks
Johny Hendricks’ final UFC fight actually came in late 2017 – a TKO loss to rising star Paulo Costa – but like Michael Bisping, ‘Bigg Rigg’ didn’t actually announce his official retirement from MMA until June 2018. The former UFC Welterweight champion claimed that he’d simply had enough of the “grind” of the sport, and had accomplished enough in his career to feel content.
Few others fighters had such a quick decline as Hendricks, who won the vacant Welterweight title in 2014 by defeating Robbie Lawler. He’d lost a controversial decision to longtime champ Georges St-Pierre in his previous fight, and many felt that ‘Bigg Rigg’ would be the man to carry the division forward following GSP’s leave of absence.
That wasn’t to be, though – Hendricks lost the title to Lawler in his first defense and then went on a horrible slide, winning just 2 of his final 7 bouts, a run that also saw him miss weight on 3 occasions despite moving up to 185lbs in 2017. It simply looked like everything that once made Hendricks – his punching power, durability, stamina and wrestling – simply evaporated overnight.
Worryingly, just months after announcing his retirement, Hendricks was back in action, albeit not in MMA. In October he announced a transition into the world of bare-knuckle boxing – but was promptly knocked out by MMA journeyman Dakota Cochrane in his debut in the sport. Hopefully, for his own health, Hendricks will now step away from combat sports for good.
