Stevie Ray announces retirement, explains reason behind the decision
Stevie Ray has competed in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts for over a decade, including both amateur and professional MMA bouts.
Ray, who made his pro MMA debut back in 2010, amassed a professional MMA record of 23 victories and 9 defeats.
Stevie Ray announces retirement and reveals reason behind it
Stevie Ray’s last MMA fight came against Michael Johnson in October of 2019 – a fight in which Ray walked away with a majority decision win.
Ray announced his retirement via Facebook Live and explained the reason behind his sudden retirement.
The Scottish MMA fighter revealed that despite signing a four-fight contract with the UFC following his victory over Johnson, he’s now chosen to retire from active MMA competition owing to health issues. Ray stated:
“Basically, I’m retiring from MMA because of my knee. There was options to maybe get an osteotomy surgery – which means cutting the bone and putting plates and stuff in – but some athletes never ever return after that because it’s quite a big surgery.”
“It’s around a year of rehab as well. And just at this stage of my career, I wasn’t wanting to go through that.”
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Ray noted that his journey has been quite crazy, training for more than a decade and fighting a few times every year. He added, however, that on an average, he’s only been able to fight a couple of times per year.
Ray opened his own MMA gym called Braveheart MMA after losing to Paul Felder. He said coaching and fighting simultaneously was a nightmare.
Ray said that although he was advised by many to compete in a few more fights simply to earn a paycheck, he refrained from doing so because his knee injury issues weren’t letting him train as well as he wanted. He said that going into a fight relatively underprepared, simply for the paycheck, and risking getting knocked out, wasn’t worth it.
Ray revealed that his knee problems have been a nightmare for him, so much si that he experiences difficulty straightening his left leg. He’d discovered severe issues with his knee back in 2018 ahead of his fight against Jessin Ayari, for which he had to undergo three surgeries.
Stevie Ray continued that ahead of his recent fights, he’d usually spend a considerable amount of time taking a break from training, icing his knee, and avoiding too much wrestling and kicking.
What does the future hold for Stevie Ray?
On an optimistic note, Stevie Ray stated that he’d like to focus on coaching at his MMA gym and managing fighters.
Ray added that he had a great experience traveling the world with the UFC and that MMA will be a part of his life.
We, here at Sportskeeda, wish Stevie Ray the very best in his pursuits after retirement.