5 UFC fighters who hung up their gloves before reaching their prime

Zabit Magomedsharipov recently stunned fans by seemingly retiring from MMA

MMA is undoubtedly one of the toughest sports in the world. Often, we see fighters – particularly in the UFC – stick around for far too long despite taking a career’s worth of damage. However, there have been some notable exceptions.

Over the years, we’ve seen a number of UFC fighters hang up their gloves seemingly too early, often before they’ve even reached their prime in the octagon.

Per Russian outlet @tassagency_en, Zabit Magomedsharipov, who was recently removed from the UFC rankings, is leaning towards retirement.

tass.ru/sport/11285743

While fans were gutted to see the likes of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Georges St-Pierre step away from the octagon, they at least got to achieve greatness. Other fighters, on the other hand, stepped away before they could even reach the top.

With that in mind, here are five UFC fighters who hung up their gloves before they’d reached their prime.

#5. Henry Cejudo – former UFC bantamweight champion

Henry Cejudo stepped away from the octagon before he could really achieve his full potential

Okay, so it’s probably fair to say that Henry Cejudo did reach the top of the UFC before he suddenly announced his retirement in the summer of 2020. After all, ‘Triple C’ captured both the flyweight and bantamweight titles during his time with the promotion, and is considered an all-time great in some circles.

However, it’s also hard to shake off the idea that Cejudo retired before he’d even scratched the surface of what he could’ve achieved had he stuck around for a little longer. Even if that time period only lasted two or three years.

An Olympic gold medallist in freestyle wrestling who also boasted an excellent striking game, knockout power and granite chin, ‘Triple C’ had everything required to become a dominant champion for years. It’s safe to say he’d have been favored over contenders like Petr Yan and Aljamain Sterling.

Had ‘Triple C’ stuck around to defend his bantamweight crown on even a handful of occasions, his spot as an all-time legend would’ve been absolutely inarguable. As it is, there’s still a very fair debate over where he belongs in the overall pantheon.

Why is it that im retired and people can’t stop talking about me! Let me enjoy my retirement 😂 twitter.com/WillHarrisAOAF…

Cejudo may still return and cement himself as a legend; he supposedly intends to, even if a fight hasn’t been announced yet. However, there’s definitely a fair argument to suggest he hadn’t even reached his peak when he walked away in 2020, and he may struggle to recapture that kind of form again.

Therefore, there are more ‘what if?’ questions around him than the likes of Georges St-Pierre and Khabib Nurmagomedov, making him a prime example of a fighter who belongs on this list.