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2022 has seen a number of new stars emerge in the UFC, but for a handful of legends, the year has marked the end of the road.
More than one UFC legend has chosen to hang up their gloves in 2022, usually coming off a devastating loss. It’s fair to say that these legends will be missed. Will any of these fighters end up returning to the octagon? Only time will tell, but for now, these former champions seem to be done.
Here are five UFC legends who retired in 2022.
#5. Luke Rockhold – former UFC middleweight champion
One of 2022’s wildest fights took place at UFC 278 in August, as former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold went into battle with Paulo Costa.
The fight saw some truly crazy action, with both men seemingly becoming exhausted early on. Rockhold was clearly worse for wear after taking some big shots in the first round, but was still able to hurt Costa at points.
However, in the end, it was clear that ‘The Eraser’ had won the fight, even if the final image was of Rockhold on top, wiping his own blood over Costa’s face.
The fight marked the end of Rockhold’s octagon career, as he announced his retirement directly afterwards, and his decision didn’t really come as a surprise.
Not only did the former champion turn 38 years old in April, he also hadn’t fought in well over three years prior to the fight. Essentially, the middleweight division had moved on without him despite his talent and star power.
Will Rockhold ever return to action? It seems unlikely. His career ended on the back of a three-fight losing streak, and while he paid tribute to the UFC after his final fight, he’d also been at odds with the promotion numerous times before, too.
Unfortunately, then, Rockhold’s legacy will probably be a mixed one. He remains one of the most talented middleweights in MMA history, but his lack of durability, coupled with his injury-prone nature, kept him from really reaching his potential.
The former middleweight champion may be missed by some, but as he’d suffered so many layoffs in the past few years, many other fans may not even realize that he’s gone.
#4. Joanna Jedrzejczyk – former UFC strawweight champion
When the subject of the greatest female fighters in UFC history comes up, one name that should be in discussion is Joanna Jedrzejczyk. The former strawweight queen announced her retirement from MMA in June 2022, but her legacy will definitely live on.
Jedrzejczyk, who held the 115-pound title for two-and-a-half years and made five successful defenses, hung up her gloves after suffering a bad knockout loss at the hands of Weili Zhang. Given her age, as well as the amount of damage she’d taken over the years, it was almost certainly the right decision.
In her prime, Jedrzejczyk was seemingly unstoppable. Nobody could seem to match her ferocity in standing exchanges, she was difficult to take down, let alone keep down, and her cardio was truly phenomenal.
However, after losing her title to Rose Namajunas in 2017, the Polish fighter definitely hit a bad patch. Following that fight, Jedrzejczyk was only able to win two more fights, outpointing Tecia Torres and Michelle Waterson. Meanwhile, she lost four, including a rematch with Namajunas in 2018.
Her final loss was actually her first fight in over two years, but her layoff was an understandable one. She took an extended break following her war with Zhang in March 2020, a fight that is widely recognized as the greatest women’s fight of all time.
While her career didn’t end in the way she wanted, then, it’s safe to say that she should be considered a true legend and arguably the greatest strawweight of all time. Hopefully, 2023 will see a Hall of Fame induction rather than a comeback for her.
#3. Frankie Edgar – former UFC lightweight champion
The retirement of former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar felt like it’d been years in the making. So, to see him finally hang up his gloves in November was more of a relief than anything else.
After all, ‘The Answer’ is one of the most likeable characters in MMA, and it simply wasn’t fun to see him suffer the kind of knockouts that he’d been suffering in recent years. Edgar’s career ended with him being knocked unconscious by a violent knee from Chris Gutierrez, but that was essentially the tip of the iceberg.
Prior to that loss, Edgar had suffered three knockout defeats in his prior four bouts, with the only outlier being a tight decision win over Pedro Munhoz in the summer of 2020. Once considered one of the most durable fighters in the sport, ‘The Answer’ had become glass-jawed.
When should Edgar have retired in reality? The truth is that he probably should’ve hung up his gloves after his final title shot, a decision loss to featherweight champ Max Holloway in the summer of 2019.
It was clear that ‘The Answer’ was past his best at that point. His move to 135 pounds, which led to knockout defeats at the hands of Cory Sandhagen and Marlon Vera, as well as Gutierrez, was disastrous.
The truth, sadly, is that Edgar stands as a classic example of a fighter who simply held on for too long. Had he retired after the Holloway loss, then the lasting memory of him would’ve been his epic lightweight title reign from 2010 to 2012.
As it is, he’ll probably be inducted into the promotion’s Hall of Fame at some stage, but it’ll be hard for most fans to erase those final images of him being knocked unconscious from their memories.
#2. T.J. Dillashaw – former UFC bantamweight champion
The most recent former UFC champion to announce his retirement in 2022 was former bantamweight kingpin T.J. Dillashaw. The announcement came as a surprise of sorts, but for many other reasons, it made a lot of sense.
Dillashaw will turn 37 years old in February, which isn’t necessarily old for a fighter. However, it is definitely fair to say that in the smaller weight classes, speed is vital, and naturally, speed wanes as a fighter gets older.
Was that the case for Dillashaw? In truth, it’s hard to say. While his final fight saw him challenge unsuccessfully for the bantamweight title, he’d spent most of the prior three years on the shelf after testing positive for EPO in 2019.
His clash with Cory Sandhagen in 2021 suggested that he was practically back to his best. Despite this, the shoulder injuries he suffered in the build-up to his fight with Aljamain Sterling were evidently enough to put him off attempting another comeback.
How will history treat Dillashaw? Unfortunately, probably not so well. His two reigns as bantamweight champion were excellent, with his initial title win over Renan Barao still being recognized as a truly great performance.
However, the specter of his failed drug test in 2019, which came during a failed attempt to win flyweight gold, will always hang over him. Was Dillashaw using banned substances during his title reigns? We’ll never know, but the suspicion will always be there.
Essentially, Dillashaw will go down as a brilliant, but badly flawed former champion, and of the legends to retire in 2022, his legacy will be the hardest to define.
#1. Jose Aldo – former UFC featherweight champion
The biggest star to hang up his gloves in 2022 was undoubtedly former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo. In many ways, it felt like the promotion’s fanbase had begun to underrate Aldo and his legacy in recent years, but hopefully, his retirement will change that.
The Brazilian famously came into the UFC from the WEC with his featherweight title intact, and defended it successfully on seven occasions before running into Conor McGregor in 2015.
Sure, his knockout loss to ‘The Notorious’ was an embarrassing one, but Aldo did bounce back well. He reclaimed featherweight gold in 2016, and while he lost it to Max Holloway the year after, he still picked up some big wins in the years that followed.
Aldo’s move to 135 pounds in 2019 didn’t bring him another run as champion, but his wins over Marlon Vera, Pedro Munhoz and Rob Font were all hugely impressive. Despite his loss to Merab Dvalishvili in August, he probably could’ve continued as a high-end contender for the bantamweight title had he chosen to.
However, the Brazilian’s decision to retire was probably the right call, as he was able to get out of the game without taking too much serious damage.
Will we see him return in 2023? It’s doubtful he’ll step into the octagon again, but he may well take fights in other combat sports, and one can only hope that he doesn’t suffer any bad losses if he does.
Either way, though, there’s still an argument that Aldo is the greatest featherweight of all time, despite the rise of rivals like Holloway and Alexander Volkanovski. With any hope, he’ll be entered into the UFC Hall of Fame next year, as he deserves it as much as any other fighter.
