Biggest premature retirements in mma

young =/= prematurely

Some already had physical/mental issues.

MMABr said:
Stun Gun Kim.
What happened to him?
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To be fair, the guy was basically 36 at that point.
Hopefully not everyone retires after a 6 fight losing streak like Cerrone, BJ, and such.
 
NicholasJBasile said:
Yeah that's the gym -- I went to school and wrestled for Cal Poly. There were some monster gyms there -- SLO Kickboxing, The Pit, Paragon; very strong regional MMA. I would imagine you may have crossed paths with Preston Scharf, Gan McGee, Scott Lighty, Hackleman, Glover Texeira, Cruz Gomez, or someone from their crew. Very cool that you were coaching there. I didn't start training with NCFA till 2013, but I'd probably know of the guy you coached against.
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You nailed it, Preston went to my Judo school. Five Cities Judo, til it burned down anyway.
I'd run into Hackleman constantly at Jamba Juice all the time. We got along great, always making jokes with each other.

One of my best friends growing up actually was set up like a lamb to slaughter to fight John Hackleman jr.
It backfired on them, my friend dropped him with a hook then choked him out. Good times, good times.

When I started teaching on my own (MMA anyway) it was at Santa Maria Athletic Club.

Somehow a normal gym with an MMA section let me take over (the record they had was bad prior) and after 6 months or so the record was pretty dang good.
The gym shut down due to some embezzlement from the upper management.
It was brutal on me.

I actually did a short summer teaching Judo at Cal Poly with Christophe Leininger.

How old are you? Wonder if we may have ever trained with each other (I'm 33 myself now)
 
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Matthew Fedler said:
It would have been interesting to see Rousey switch camps and maybe even drop to 125 when it became an option.
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I know everyone hates her now, it's the cool thing to do but yeah, if she didn't surround herself with yes men and scum bags, her grappling level was soooooo above everyone else. I think if she didn't fall in love with her god awful striking, she'd be pretty easily regarded as the best

It's not like she started there and had some loyalty from that.
She wasn't hurting for money.
Why didn't she just stay with Hayastan or go to any other half way decent gym. I never understood the switch to Edmund's
Hell, neither did her mother it seems.

Guess we will never know.
 
I know Khabib has been mentioned, but he is the one that sticks out to me. He had the skills to be one of the goats, but he retired way too early. Between injuries and Ramadan he wasn't even that active when he was fighting. The last 7 years of his career he only fought 8 times. This was frustrating from a fans perspective and why people give his ball lickers such a hard time around here.
 
El Fernas said:
Early for sure, but he had reached his peak, fought DC twice for the belt, the only what if was a fight with Jones.
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I think he could have became champ and even defend his belt with Cormier and Jones gone, just like Gustafsson
 
Khabib
 
Nathan LaMontagne said:
You nailed it, Preston went to my Judo school. Five Cities Judo, til it burned down anyway.
I'd run into Hackleman constantly at Jamba Juice all the time. We got along great, always making jokes with each other.

One of my best friends growing up actually was set up like a lamb to slaughter to fight John Hackleman jr.
It backfired on them, my friend dropped him with a hook then choked him out. Good times, good times.

When I started teaching on my own (MMA anyway) it was at Santa Maria Athletic Club.

Somehow a normal gym with an MMA section let me take over (the record they had was bad prior) and after 6 months or so the record was pretty dang good.
The gym shut down due to some embezzlement from the upper management.
It was brutal on me.

I actually did a short summer teaching Judo at Cal Poly with Christophe Leininger.

How old are you? Wonder if we may have ever trained with each other (I'm 33 myself now)
Click to expand...
Wow that's kinda wild about your old gym. I'm 34 -- we probably didn't train together though since my dumb ass just focused on wrestling while in college, which "paid off" since I ended up having 5 fucking knee surgeries and compiled a whopping 3 wins total for the 4 years I wrestled haha You live and you learn though. In retrospect, I should have trained MMA in the off season in between wrestling practices. I could have done both -- I had the drive, but I was just so focused on wrestling; problem was that the training I was doing didn't improve my wrestling so much as improve my long distance running and strength. I went to a small handful of practices at SLO Kickboxing and got my ass handed to me by the grappling coach (Jason Frazier I think his name is; really cool guy). I was always the "MMA guy" on the wrestling team haha No one else was much of an MMA fan. Chad Mendes followed casually, but I knew he was gonna fight some day; too talented not to, plus Urijah used to visit our practices and sweet talk him into joining TAM; TJ Dillashaw as well but he was at Cal State Fullerton. Very cool that you're still coaching mate; it's not easy to have much longevity in the sport, be it as a fighter or a coach.
 
NicholasJBasile said:
Wow that's kinda wild about your old gym. I'm 34 -- we probably didn't train together though since my dumb ass just focused on wrestling while in college, which "paid off" since I ended up having 5 fucking knee surgeries and compiled a whopping 3 wins total for the 4 years I wrestled haha You live and you learn though. In retrospect, I should have trained MMA in the off season in between wrestling practices. I could have done both -- I had the drive, but I was just so focused on wrestling; problem was that the training I was doing didn't improve my wrestling so much as improve my long distance running and strength. I went to a small handful of practices at SLO Kickboxing and got my ass handed to me by the grappling coach (Jason Frazier I think his name is; really cool guy). I was always the "MMA guy" on the wrestling team haha No one else was much of an MMA fan. Chad Mendes followed casually, but I knew he was gonna fight some day; too talented not to, plus Urijah used to visit our practices and sweet talk him into joining TAM; TJ Dillashaw as well but he was at Cal State Fullerton. Very cool that you're still coaching mate; it's not easy to have much longevity in the sport, be it as a fighter or a coach.
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Yeah some dorky teenage fucks decided to go full arson. It was rough after that.



I feel you on the knees, I haven't gotten surgeries though I have been needing it for almost 20 years on both.

Full tear on the meniscus, both knees.

I love hearing the background, it takes me back to the old days. Reminds me of the time I walked into Judo... Fucking Shonie Carter is there. Took him 15 minutes to remove all his jewelry.

Coolest Dude ever
 
Lol at Lee Murray.
He got stabbed up then a heist but he is still doing push ups in his cell, awaiting Tito in 2035
 
GSP-Press-Conference-e1502307948166.jpg




Two times btw
 
Nathan LaMontagne said:
Yeah some dorky teenage fucks decided to go full arson. It was rough after that.



I feel you on the knees, I haven't gotten surgeries though I have been needing it for almost 20 years on both.

Full tear on the meniscus, both knees.

I love hearing the background, it takes me back to the old days. Reminds me of the time I walked into Judo... Fucking Shonie Carter is there. Took him 15 minutes to remove all his jewelry.

Coolest Dude ever
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Very cool -- he's from Chicago, no? I've always been a fan of Shonie Carter; he'll probably never get the appreciation he deserves and has likely been forgotten about by most, but he always seemed like a sponge for the fight game and wisdom. I always thought he had good fight IQ as well and did a lot with what he had to give.
 
Scanned the pages briefly and didn’t see Igor Vov.

He quit at like 31 or 32 but after seeing he had like 50-60 MMA fights, I also saw he had even MORE kickboxing fights.
Then I relented on thinking he quit too soon. The man’s body has been threw hell.
Enjoy the retirement, and running your restaurant!
 
I think the majority of people suggesting Phillip Miller didn’t actually follow his career in real-time. While his 16-0 record on paper was impressive, it wasn’t truly reflective of his abilities. He was in a world of trouble against Mark Weir, who wasn’t exactly a world beater. His only other UFC appearance was a remarkably boring performance against the one and done Zikic.

He’s remembered more fondly in hindsight, but he’s essentially a folk tale at this point. He was an awkward blanket that was completely forgettable during his time in the UFC.
 
NicholasJBasile said:
Very cool -- he's from Chicago, no? I've always been a fan of Shonie Carter; he'll probably never get the appreciation he deserves and has likely been forgotten about by most, but he always seemed like a sponge for the fight game and wisdom. I always thought he had good fight IQ as well and did a lot with what he had to give.
Click to expand...


Yeah, pretty sure Chicago. He was absolutely hilarious and extremely friendly.

I think I was like 15 or something at the time. We rolled, was awesome. Made me feel super special. Even though I was 15 he was asking me advice on moves, how I did certain things, etc.
But yeah, if you're so cool and humble you're willing to ask a 15 year old for advice. You're truly trying to be the best you possibly can.

He came in with Abe (I'm blanking on his last name) he was in that SLO Kickboxing/ The Pit group. I sadly believe Abe passled away a ways back I'll see if I can find his name.
 
beaglepuss said:
I think the majority of people suggesting Phillip Miller didn’t actually follow his career in real-time. While his 16-0 record on paper was impressive, it wasn’t truly reflective of his abilities. He was in a world of trouble against Mark Weir, who wasn’t exactly a world beater. His only other UFC appearance was a remarkably boring performance against the one and done Zikic.

He’s remembered more fondly in hindsight, but he’s essentially a folk tale at this point. He was an awkward blanket that was completely forgettable during his time in the UFC.
Click to expand...

I was there for his actual fighting days, I still put him, if only for how much he got discussed afterwards simply due to his record alone. Folk tale is the perfect term for him.

I still think Genki Sudo had a lot in the tank when he retired (he retired because he wanted to move onto something else, not injuries or losses)
 
Holdsworth might have been the most talented Alpha Male fighter. Unfortunately we'll never know.
 
BJ Penn and Chuck Liddell, always wonder their careers would have turned out if they kept going.
 
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