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Like in pro-wrestling, it seems that very few retirements truly stick in the world of the UFC. Often, it seems that no sooner has a fighter hung their gloves up, they’re announcing their return.
Over the years we’ve seen a number of fighters announce that they were stepping away from the octagon for good, only to return relatively quickly afterwards.
Sometimes, these fighters were clearly using the threat of retirement to back the promotion into a corner. Other times, they were simply reacting too emotionally to a bad loss. Either way, it’s always fascinating to see.
Here are five UFC fighters who backtracked on their retirement plans.
#5. Kevin Holland – UFC welterweight
The most recent UFC fighter to announce his retirement plans, only to backtrack instantly is welterweight contender Kevin Holland.
‘Trailblazer’ enjoyed one of the best runs of any fighter in 2020, winning five fights in a row as a middleweight. After a tricky 2021 that saw him lose two fights and go to a no contest in the third, he dropped to 170lbs to begin 2022.
Holland defeated Alex Oliveira and Tim Means in his first two fights at his new weight. He then ran into Khamzat Chimaev last month and was whitewashed en route to a first round submission defeat.
There was no shame in Holland’s loss to ‘Borz’, but evidently, ‘Trailblazer’ himself felt differently. He took to social media to announce his retirement at the age of just 29.
The move always did feel like it came out of left field, but when Dana White went on the record to suggest that Holland had jumped the gun with his announcement, the fighter then doubled down, claiming he was done “unless something super-duper magical pops up.”
Evidently, that “super-duper magical” thing was a fight with former title challenger Stephen Thompson. Just hours after Holland had made his claim, the UFC announced that he’d signed to fight ‘Wonderboy’ in December, with ‘Trailblazer’ then taking to Instagram to say that he’d never left.
In this instance, White’s suspicion was probably correct, but the whole situation was amusing, and marks one of the shortest retirements in history.
#4. Paul Felder – former UFC lightweight
By the time that he took to the octagon for a war with Dan Hooker in early 2020, lightweight veteran Paul Felder had already carved out a side career for himself as one of the UFC’s most respected color commentators.
When ‘The Irish Dragon’ was outpointed by Hooker, then, few eyebrows were raised when he announced that he intended to hang up his gloves after the bout.
After all, Felder was 35 years old at the time, wasn’t in title contention, had nearly a decade’s worth of fighting under his belt, and clearly didn’t need to take any more damage.
However, a couple of months later, ‘The Irish Dragon’ backtracked a little. In an interview with Ariel Helwani, he suggested that he wasn’t fully retired, but would be willing to take on an “enticing challenge” should it come along.
That challenge turned out to be former lightweight titleholder Rafael dos Anjos, who was in need of an opponent to replace the injured Islam Makhachev in a headline bout in late 2020, 10 months after Felder’s loss to Hooker.
Bravely, ‘The Irish Dragon’ took the bout with ‘RDA’ on just five days’ notice. While he lost a split decision, he acquitted himself well. He even signed a new deal with the UFC afterwards.
Since then, though, Felder has again announced his retirement. As over a year has gone by since, it feels like this time, his decision will stick.
#3. Khamzat Chimaev – UFC welterweight
When welterweight prospect Khamzat Chimaev exploded into the UFC in the summer of 2020 with three dominant wins, it felt like the promotion had stumbled upon the next big thing. ‘Borz’ appeared to have skills in all areas, and the confidence to back it up, too.
However, shortly after the promotion decided to book him in what could’ve been seen as a top contender’s match against Leon Edwards in the final month of the year, the Chechen-born Swedish fighter was struck down with a particularly nasty case of COVID-19.
The bout with Edwards was postponed, but before it could be rebooked, Chimaev abruptly took to Instagram to announce his sudden retirement, blaming lung complications from his battle with COVID-19 as the reason.
Unsurprisingly, Dana White was quick to refute this, stating that Chimaev had simply gotten too emotional after experiencing some bad side effects from the drug prednisone that he’d used to treat the virus, and that he wouldn’t be retiring at all.
For a while at least, though, everything was up in the air. Controversial Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov even reportedly attempting to convince Chimaev to return.
Eventually, though, 'Borz' did indeed return to the octagon, submitting Li Jingliang in his return fight. He’s since gone onto record two more wins, suggesting that he’s left his issues with COVID-19 – and his pseudo-retirement – far behind him.
#2. Randy Couture – former UFC heavyweight champion
When Randy Couture announced that he would be hanging up his gloves after his second defeat to Chuck Liddell in early 2006, it was a move that seemed to make perfect sense.
Not only was ‘The Natural’ 42 years old at the time, but after holding both the UFC light heavyweight and heavyweight titles on two occasions each, he literally had nothing left to prove. More to the point, he had a lucrative gig as an announcer to step right into.
The last thing anyone expected was for Couture to return to action. However, just over a year later, he was back in the octagon, and at the age of 43, nonetheless. He defeated Tim Sylvia to become a three-time heavyweight champion.
What inspired Couture to return? Essentially, ‘The Natural’ simply couldn’t check out of the sport altogether. He’d already competed in a highly-anticipated grappling match with Brazilian jiu-jitsu legend Jacare Souza in 2006 – going to a draw – and despite being middle-aged, was clearly still in fantastic shape.
So with the promotion desperate for a viable opponent for Sylvia, the former champion was an obvious choice.
In the end, backtracking on his retirement was one of the best things Couture could ever have done. Not only did he add to his own legend by claiming another title, but he also headlined a further five major shows, making some serious money in the process.
#1. Conor McGregor – former UFC lightweight champion
Perhaps the most notorious example – no pun intended – of a UFC fighter deciding to backtrack on their retirement is former featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor.
The Irishman has announced his retirement on no fewer than four occasions since arriving in the UFC back in 2013, only to go back on his word every time.
In McGregor’s case, it feels like announcing his retirement via social media is simply a way for him to drum up fan interest when it appears to be waning – and to force the UFC’s hand when it comes to paying him even more money.
‘The Notorious’ first announced his apparent retirement in 2016, when his rematch with Nate Diaz was removed from UFC 200 after he refused to fulfill his media commitments. After tweeting that he’d “decided to retire young,” though, he was back just a couple of months later to edge out Diaz in a five round war.
Next, five months after his loss to Khabib Nurmagomedov in a lightweight title bout, the Irishman appeared to hang up his gloves again, this time casually stating on social media that he was retiring from “the sport formally known as ‘Mixed Martial Art’ today” and wishing his “old colleagues” well.
Of course, that retirement lasted a little over nine months before he made another comeback, this time to defeat Donald Cerrone at the start of 2020.
Again, though, it didn’t take long for McGregor to supposedly retire for a third time. June 2020 saw him tweet a photo of him celebrating with his mother after a title win in Las Vegas, announcing that he’d decided to retire from fighting and stating “what a ride it’s been.”
Just as before, though, his announcement appeared to be a ploy, this time due to the UFC’s struggles to book him in a fight due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Naturally, it took less than six months for him to announce another return, this time for a big-money rematch with Dustin Poirier.
Most recently, McGregor seemed to hint at his retirement again when he tweeted “MMA, I’ll never forget you! Easy work.”
Whether he backtracks on this retirement as he did on the others remains to be seen – but given that a spokesperson for him was quick to state that fighting remained the Irishman’s focus shortly after, it’s highly likely that will be the case.
