5 Times a "retired" fighter should have stayed retired
MMA is a cruel and fickle mistress, and old fighters don’t walk away with a retirement plan and a gold pocket watch like normal employees or ahem “Independent Contractors.”.
Instead far too often a fighter’s ultimate descent is a series of “retirements” and returns which get uglier and uglier until eventually they understand that they’re finally done, actually for real.
Or as is as often the case, no one is willing to pay them to fight anymore.
In this article, we’ll be taking a look at 5 times that MMA fighters have retired, and returned only to learn that maybe they were better off in retirement.
Let’s get started.
#5 BJ Penn
Pick any of BJ Penn’s last 3 fights. Let’s start with the latest fighter to come out of retirement (again) only to be on the recieveing end of an embarrassing #BEATEMDOWN. The first of BJ’s embarrassing return fights was against Rory Macdonald, only a little more than a year after his first “retirement” following the beating Nick Diaz put on him.
That was still way back in December 2012! BJ sorta retired after that one, depending on who you asked, but begged his way onto the Ultimate Fighter and into another embarrassing #BEATEMDOWN against Frankie Edgar in July of 2014.
You would really think at this point BJ would stay retired, but you’d be wrong!
He came back again last weeknd at UFC Fight Night 103 Phoenix and got kicked in the face roughly 7067 times in a round and 24 seconds (all numbers are approximations). Hopefully this is the end for BJ Penn, but don’t be surprised if in 2025 you read a list about MMA fighters who should have been retired inspired by BJ Penn getting beaten up by some 18 year old from O’ahu at Shark Fights 17: Old Guard, New Lion.