Rory MacDonald’s first-round knockout loss last weekend will be his last outing as a fighter. MacDonald leaves MMA as a genuine legend of the sport, and described the feeling of diminishing returns to Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, and how that feeling pushed him into retirement.
The former Bellator champion and UFC top contender discussed how, under the bright lights of fight night, it’s just not who he is any more.
Rory MacDonald Reveals Reason For Retirement
“It’s been on my mind for a while. I feel like it’s been quite a few fights, actually, where I’ve questioned it but just wasn’t ready.
I felt like I could still have that resurgence in my career. I had a goal that I was driven toward, and I know in the practise room I could do certain things, but I just wasn’t able to do it in the cage when rubber meets the road, so to speak.
Unfortunately, there’s a difference between what you can do in the practice room and under those lights. I just don’t have that certain thing, that spirit, that heart to go out there and get it done anymore.
Every fight, for a while now, it’s been diminishing. I’ve seen it more and more. This season was my last hurrah, basically. I was all-in. I was going to put everything I absolutely could into this, and if I was successful, I would just keep going with it and go toward my goals, but if I fall short, that will be the end.
And this last fight, even if I had put up a better fight and lost, or even if I had won, just the feeling I had in that fight was confirmation to me that this isn’t for me anymore. It’s not who I am anymore.”
MacDonald revealed that he’s been contemplating retirement ever since he faced Gegard Mousasi in 2018. “It was when I fought Mousasi.
That fight I didn’t prepare like I should have prepared. That was the beginning, I think. After the injury I had in the Lima fight and the injuries I had from the second Lawler fight, it really started to play with my head. Being on my couch for three months, not being able to walk after the Lima fight, it just started…
I tried to ignore those voices but your body and your flesh kind of cries out to you. I tried to ignore it for as long as I can but subconsciously it’s there. You can only take so much punishment over the years. You have to be willing to go through that and I think I just sort of came to my wit’s end.”
Is this the right time for Rory MacDonald to retire? Let us know in the comments.
