“Father time is undefeated,” is a popular phrase often used when aging athletes refuse to accept the fact the end is near. The prospect of retirement is often a bitter pill to swallow. Great champions, who at one time couldn’t be touched, start to lose a step and fall back to earth.
For some fighters the regression is slight and occurs over an extended period of time. For others the drop is sudden and hard to make sense of.
Many great champions across the spectrum of athletics hang on much too long, unwilling to accept that their time had passed. They linger around hoping to recapture a fleeting bit of the magic they once possessed.
In boxing, it was greats like Ali and Leonard. NFL stars like Brett Favre and Jerry Rice could have called it a career long before they did. The NBA saw the same thing with greats like Larry Bird, Shaquille O’Neal and even Michael Jordan.
Here are seven UFC Greats who should hang it up.