Unlike most years in MMA, 2024 was packed with what appeared to be genuine retirements.
Usually, a collective eye-roll from the global fan base occurs anytime an athlete decides to hang up his or her gloves. And that’s not because we’re all a bunch of unfeeling jerks; it’s because more often than not, the fighter in question does a compete U-turn on his or her decision within a year of making that declaration.
But over the past 12 months, the parting proclamations from MMA’s best felt more forthright — not decisions made with haste on the back of a frustrating result or a paltry protest because of an opportunity not being presented.
That’s not to say there weren’t examples of the classic uncertainty of retirements in this industry.
In a quintessentially confusing non-conclusion, Tony Ferguson laid just one glove on the canvas back in August after a first-round submission loss to Michael Chiesa brought his record-breaking UFC loss streak to eight. “El Cucuy” refused to bow to the universal pressure desperately trying to push him into retirement that night. “It ain’t over,” he mouthed to the camera as he made his way backstage. Despite UFC CEO Dana White insisting that the UFC will not offer the once great lightweight another fight, Ferguson has continued to underline his intentions to compete again.
Featherweight legend Cub Swanson was likewise presented with a perfect exit after his spectacular knockout of Billy Quarantillo in recent weeks. However, when teed up for a big farewell, Swanson repeatedly refused the invitation.
Such situations will always exist, but let’s celebrate some (hopefully) clean-cut curtain calls we witnessed over the past 12 months, ranked from surprisingly happy to peak typical MMA sadness.
Demetrious Johnson
Depression scale: 1/5
How could you feel bad about the greatest flyweight of all time — some would argue the greatest fighter of all time — leaving the sport with a smile on his face, money in the bank and with a budding career in a new field already established?
Johnson is still as sharp as a tack after a career that spanned 18 years. He holds the UFC record for the most consecutive title defenses with 11, and for my money, he is the owner of the most spectacular submission finish in the sport’s history with the move he christened “The Mighty Wiz Bar” — a seamless suplex to armbar — that he landed on Ray Borg in October 2017.
Although it wasn’t his intention, UFC champ Alexandre Pantoja underlined the brilliance of Johnson when he called for a showdown with the flyweight GOAT following Pantoja’s recent routing of Kai Asakura.
“Mighty Mouse” hadn’t competed in more than a year, hadn’t stepped foot in a UFC Octagon in six years and had announced his retirement three months before, but in the eyes of today’s current flyweight king, the 38-year-old Johnson was the most obvious candidate that could fortify Pantoja’s growing legacy.
Fortunately for us, Johnson will remain a presence in the sport through his fantastic YouTube channel, where he offers his Hall of Fame insights to his ever-growing audience.
Matt Brown
Depression scale: 2/5
“The Immortal” is another beloved combatant who bid farewell to MMA this year.
The owner of the most knockouts in UFC welterweight history with 13 — and tied for the most knockouts in UFC history, period — Matt Brown’s legacy will be his punishing striking style and the aggression he took into the Octagon every time he competed. He entered the promotion as an unassuming 7-6 pro in 2008 on the back of his appearance on “The Ultimate Fighter 7” only for us to watch him unexpectedly refine the Brown Art of War over the next 16 years.
Like the aforementioned Swanson, Brown gave the world a fittingly brutal knockout for his final Octagon act when he stopped Court McGee in the first round of their May 2023 meeting.
In his typically understated announcement, a year later, Brown told the world via a random social media post that he was “not doing it again.”
Jack Shore
Depression scale: 3/5
Jack Shore’s retirement in early December wasn’t sad as much as it was unexpected.
Shore was a blue-chip prospect on entry to the UFC in 2019, having claimed the Cage Warriors bantamweight championship and defended it several times. Along with his father, Richard “Shaky” Shore, he shined a massive spotlight on the sport in his native Wales and became one of the most beloved sports stars from the region.
Shore’s traveling supporters added a lot of color and character to the famed UFC Fight Nights in London. And in March 2022 — the best London card ever, for my money — Shore treated his adoring public to a brilliant display against Timur Valiev.
But the struggle to make bantamweight was real for “Tank,” and after moving up to featherweight and recording a 1-2 UFC record in the weight class, he called it a day at 29 years old.
Shore will continue to coach the next generation of Welsh fighters alongside “Shaky,” both of whom’s legacies will be the amount of eyeballs and interest they brought to MMA in their homeland.
Carla Esparza
Depression scale: 4/5
Upon her retirement, the first UFC women’s strawweight champion got to enjoy a video montage of her historic career in the middle of the Octagon with her son in her arms. Esparza had just come up on the short end of a decision to fellow veteran Tecia Pennington, but she had made her intentions clear that she would call it a day before the opening bell had rung.
So why is this sadder than Johnson’s, Brown’s or Shore’s retirement, you might ask? Well, I guess that’s down to my feeling that Esparza never truly got the credit she deserved. Even on fight week, her impending retirement was barely a footnote, and her UFC 307 swan song against Pennington was buried on the deepest possible prelims, barely one step removed from the night’s curtain-jerker.
Regardless of my sentiment, Esparza’s name will be etched in the history of the UFC forever. The fight might not have been the most spectacular, but when she regained the title from Rose Namajunas in 2022, it set the record for the longest time between title reigns in UFC history at 2,612 days. Like Johnson, Brown and Shore, she went out on her own terms and is completely content with dedicating her life to her family.
It’s hard to be mad at that.
Stipe Miocic
Depression scale: 5/5
Full disclosure, I was complicit in every aspect of why Stipe Miocic’s retirement made me feel a certain kind of way.
We all knew his date with Jon Jones would likely be the last time we saw one of history’s great heavyweight champions in action, but that didn’t stop the entire sport from making Miocic a tertiary character in the build-up to November’s UFC 309 title fight in New York.
All the chatter that week was about a guy who wasn’t even fighting, Tom Aspinall. It was as if Miocic barely existed. Even when Jones had his hand raised and Miocic’s retirement was made official, there was no uproarious fanfare, no celebration of one of the UFC’s heavyweight GOATs — the conversation immediately turned to whether Jones would agree to fight with interim titleholder Aspinall.
Miocic has never struck me as the kind of guy that wants a song and dance made for him, but after the nights he gave us in Rio and particularly in Cleveland, his exit felt like a disservice for me.
Honorable mentions:
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Germaine de Randamie
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Joanne Wood
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Satoshii Ishii
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Michelle Waterson-Gomez
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Thiago Alves
