Sports are littered with luminaries who couldn’t easily kick their addiction to the spotlight. Michael Jordan, Jerry Rice and Willie Mays are among the superstars who ended their careers with unfamiliar teams and badly eroded skill sets.
The danger is literally greater for MMA fighters, for whom hanging on too long can mean big knockouts and various other dehumanizations. Chuck Liddell and Kazushi Sakuraba are two of the more noteworthy examples.
Going out at the right time, then, is an important art form in mixed martial arts. Because I couldn’t narrow it down to five, here are six guys who not only picked a good time to go, but went out on an impressive winning note.