The circus for Matt Riddle continues, as the recently retired mixed martial artist finds himself back in the game after a few short weeks. He was originally slated to compete in the Season 9 Bellator welterweight tournament, but a rib injury forced him out before he could enter the cage. Thinking that Bellator couldn’t get […]
The circus for Matt Riddle continues, as the recently retired mixed martial artist finds himself back in the game after a few short weeks. He was originally slated to compete in the Season 9 Bellator welterweight tournament, but a rib injury forced him out before he could enter the cage. Thinking that Bellator couldn’t get […]
(Admit it. You’re gonna miss that face. | Photo via MMAWeekly)
UFC lightweight Paul Taylor has retired from MMA competition after the most recent of a long string of injuries forced him out of at least his fourth fight in the last three years. Taylor hasn’t fought since his knockout win against Gabe Ruediger in February 2011.
“All his old injuries flared up in training,” a source close to Taylor told Fighters Only. “He’s very disappointed not to be fighting on the Manchester card but there’s nothing he can do, these injuries just won’t go away.”
Taylor ends his career with an overall record of 11-6-1 (with 1 NC), and a 4-5 tally in the UFC. But despite his journeyman’s record, Taylor was a consistently exciting fighter, winning three Fight of The Night bonuses since he began his Octagon run in 2007. (In particular, his UFC 75 battle against Marcus Davis remains one of the greatest one-round fights in UFC history.) Taylor was also key part of the organization’s promotional efforts in his native Britain. Taylor fought six times for the UFC in the UK.
Like Shane Carwin, Paul Taylor had enough talent and heart to have a much longer career in mixed martial arts, but his body simply didn’t cooperate. Enjoy retirement and be well, “Relentless” Paul.
(Admit it. You’re gonna miss that face. | Photo via MMAWeekly)
UFC lightweight Paul Taylor has retired from MMA competition after the most recent of a long string of injuries forced him out of at least his fourth fight in the last three years. Taylor hasn’t fought since his knockout win against Gabe Ruediger in February 2011.
“All his old injuries flared up in training,” a source close to Taylor told Fighters Only. “He’s very disappointed not to be fighting on the Manchester card but there’s nothing he can do, these injuries just won’t go away.”
Taylor ends his career with an overall record of 11-6-1 (with 1 NC), and a 4-5 tally in the UFC. But despite his journeyman’s record, Taylor was a consistently exciting fighter, winning three Fight of The Night bonuses since he began his Octagon run in 2007. (In particular, his UFC 75 battle against Marcus Davis remains one of the greatest one-round fights in UFC history.) Taylor was also key part of the organization’s promotional efforts in his native Britain. Taylor fought six times for the UFC in the UK.
Like Shane Carwin, Paul Taylor had enough talent and heart to have a much longer career in mixed martial arts, but his body simply didn’t cooperate. Enjoy retirement and be well, “Relentless” Paul.
With Bellator 99, World Series of Fighting 5 and, oh yeah, Mayweather vs. Canelo all transpiring this past weekend, you might not have heard that Legacy Fighting Championships — the quiet, unassuming, off-off-off Broadway MMA promotion to the stars — held an event as well. Despite featuring a few names that only the hardest of hardcore MMA would recognize (Richard Odoms! THE Carlos Vergara!!), LFC 23 set the stage for a couple notable moments. Mainly, Leonard Garcia picking up his second straight win since being ousted from the UFC and Pete Spratt retiring following his first round KO loss to fellow UFC vet Tim Means in the evening’s main event.
Unfortunately, while we were in the midst of drafting up another “And Now He’s Retired” article to commemorate Spratt’s departure after nearly 50 professional bouts and 15 years in the sport (!), Spratt done went and unretired. After a 48 hour retirement. Vinny Magalhaes was all like “He did *what* now?” and we were all like “Not this shit again,” but it seems that Spratt will be moving forward with his CP ban-violating decision nonetheless. Here’s why:
That was a retirement thing based on a guy who got hit in the back of the head, that was still groggy thinking about his family and that type of stuff, without having had the opportunity to review what actually happened in the fight. If I looked back at it and my skills had diminished, that would be different. But that wasn’t the case.
Me, I was thinking I just went in there and got my butt kicked, which isn’t what happened after I watched the fight.
(Gif of the Means/Spratt ending via MMAFighting.)
With Bellator 99, World Series of Fighting 5 and, oh yeah, Mayweather vs. Canelo all transpiring this past weekend, you might not have heard that Legacy Fighting Championships — the quiet, unassuming, off-off-off Broadway MMA promotion to the stars — held an event as well. Despite featuring a few names that only the hardest of hardcore MMA would recognize (Richard Odoms! THE Carlos Vergara!!), LFC 23 set the stage for a couple notable moments. Mainly, Leonard Garcia picking up his second straight win since being ousted from the UFC and Pete Spratt retiring following his first round KO loss to fellow UFC vet Tim Means in the evening’s main event.
Unfortunately, while we were in the midst of drafting up another “And Now He’s Retired” article to commemorate Spratt’s departure after nearly 50 professional bouts and 15 years in the sport (!), Spratt done went and unretired. After a 48 hour retirement. Vinny Magalhaes was all like “He did *what* now?” and we were all like “Not this shit again,” but it seems that Spratt will be moving forward with his CP ban-violating decision nonetheless. Here’s why:
That was a retirement thing based on a guy who got hit in the back of the head, that was still groggy thinking about his family and that type of stuff, without having had the opportunity to review what actually happened in the fight. If I looked back at it and my skills had diminished, that would be different. But that wasn’t the case.
Me, I was thinking I just went in there and got my butt kicked, which isn’t what happened after I watched the fight.
Oh boy, the old “I was wronged” defense.
Look, we are obviously not in the place to decide whether Spratt’s skills have diminished over the years (although his barely above .500 record would seem to indicate that they have) or to declare whether Means’ elbows were illegal or not (my vote is that they weren’t. Also, I’m always right about these things). That being said, Spratt’s reasoning for unretiring seems to be based on decisions as hastily-made as the ones that led him to retire all of three days ago. If the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation doesn’t overturn the loss, does that mean that Spratt will accept that he “Got his butt kicked” and re-retire once and for all?
Again, our opinion probably means fuck-all to a pioneer of the sport like Spratt, who insists that he is still “having fun” competing in MMA at the tender age of 42:
I’m having fun with the competition and at the same time I’m still learning and enjoying testing myself against these younger guys. If I wasn’t 42, people wouldn’t be talking about me retiring, or being in the twilight of my career. I never drank, never smoked, never abused my body negatively for me to be diminishing in my skills. Which I’m not.
Currently 4-6 in his past 10 fights, we would say that “The Secret Weapon’s” best days are most certainly behind him. If he is unwilling to admit that, that’s fine. But who knows? Maybe the fact that the UFC is giving a mentally unstable B.J. Penn the keys to the gun cabinet has convinced Spratt to make another run at the big time, because who the hell is going to stop him? We just hope for his sake that it won’t take another brutal knockout loss (or series of brutal knockout losses) to remind Spratt that his original decision was the right one.
I’m retiring from MMA today cracked my rib and can’t fight sept 20, Bellator said they can’t find me a fight till the next tournament and I can’t afford not fighting that long and need a job, sorry if I let anyone down but it isn’t paying the bills
Making a living as a low-to-mid-level UFC fighter is hard enough when you’re fighting consistently. But if we’re going to talk about lost wages, we have to mention the fines and suspensions that Riddle received from his two separatepositive marijuana tests, which he caught following his victories over Chris Clements (which originally earned him Submission of the Night honors at UFC 149) and Che Mills. Both of those wins were overturned to no-contests, leaving Riddle with a lifetime record of 7-3 with 2 no-contests, which would have been a more respectable 9-3 if he didn’t smoke so much damn weed.
Riddle’s latest setback was the last straw for him financially, and he’ll now try to enter general population and get a non-fighting job. (A “regular, you know, job, job-type job,” as Mr. Blonde would say.) But enough doom and gloom. Let’s look at Matt Riddle’s achievements…
(Riddle’s doctor described the injury as occurring “right about in the toadstool-area.” Photo via Sherdog)
I’m retiring from MMA today cracked my rib and can’t fight sept 20, Bellator said they can’t find me a fight till the next tournament and I can’t afford not fighting that long and need a job, sorry if I let anyone down but it isn’t paying the bills
Making a living as a low-to-mid-level UFC fighter is hard enough when you’re fighting consistently. But if we’re going to talk about lost wages, we have to mention the fines and suspensions that Riddle received from his two separatepositive marijuana tests, which he caught following his victories over Chris Clements (which originally earned him Submission of the Night honors at UFC 149) and Che Mills. Both of those wins were overturned to no-contests, leaving Riddle with a lifetime record of 7-3 with 2 no-contests, which would have been a more respectable 9-3 if he didn’t smoke so much damn weed.
Riddle’s latest setback was the last straw for him financially, and he’ll now try to enter general population and get a non-fighting job. (A “regular, you know, job, job-type job,” as Mr. Blonde would say.) But enough doom and gloom. Let’s look at Matt Riddle’s achievements…
– He was the original Uriah Hall. Riddle’s knockout of Dan Simmler during the elimination round of TUF 7 was at the time considered to be the nastiest KO in Ultimate Fighter history, mostly because of the sounds Simmler was making afterwards.
– His 1,350 strikes landed in the UFC puts him at #8 on the all-time list, between Chael Sonnen (1,452) and Nate Diaz (1,343). Seriously. Matt Riddle of all people. And in terms of strikes attempted, my God, it has to be in the trillions.
The last time we saw Sean Sherk on the Octagon, he was getting his hand raised following a questionable decision victory against Evan Dunham at UFC 119. In the three years since then, Sherk has been busy rehabbing old injuries and waiting for his next move. That next move never came, and the former lightweight champion steadily faded out of relevance while the lightweight division he helped revive continued to grow deeper and more prominent.
It’s possible that you assumed Sean Sherk — who turned 40 last month — was already retired, but “The Muscle Shark” (man, that nickname) didn’t make it official until yesterday, when he announced his departure from the sport on The MMA Hour. A press release on TrainingMask.com adds that “Sherk plans to maintain his involvement at Training Mask while coaching MMA, and teaching seminars. Sherk is also continuing a successful career in real estate investment.”
Sherk leaves behind a career-record of 36-4-1 dating back to 1999, including wins over Nick Diaz, Kenny Florian, Tyson Griffin, Hermes Franca, and Karo Parisyan, and a UFC lightweight title reign that lasted from October 2006 to December 2007. His only losses came against long-reigning UFC champions: Matt Hughes, Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn, and Frankie Edgar.
But despite his accomplishments, Sean Sherk was never a fan favorite. Much of that could be blamed on his methodical, slow-grind wrestling approach to fighting — a style that crowds can’t help booing, and which Sherk never really evolved beyond. And unfortunately, his stint as a UFC champion was also the most controversial period of his career.
The last time we saw Sean Sherk on the Octagon, he was getting his hand raised following a questionable decision victory against Evan Dunham at UFC 119. In the three years since then, Sherk has been busy rehabbing old injuries and waiting for his next move. That next move never came, and the former lightweight champion steadily faded out of relevance while the lightweight division he helped revive continued to grow deeper and more prominent.
It’s possible that you assumed Sean Sherk — who turned 40 last month — was already retired, but “The Muscle Shark” (man, that nickname) didn’t make it official until yesterday, when he announced his departure from the sport on The MMA Hour. A press release on TrainingMask.com adds that “Sherk plans to maintain his involvement at Training Mask while coaching MMA, and teaching seminars. Sherk is also continuing a successful career in real estate investment.”
Sherk leaves behind a career-record of 36-4-1 dating back to 1999, including wins over Nick Diaz, Kenny Florian, Tyson Griffin, Hermes Franca, and Karo Parisyan, and a UFC lightweight title reign that lasted from October 2006 to December 2007. His only losses came against long-reigning UFC champions: Matt Hughes, Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn, and Frankie Edgar.
But despite his accomplishments, Sean Sherk was never a fan favorite. Much of that could be blamed on his methodical, slow-grind wrestling approach to fighting — a style that crowds can’t help booing, and which Sherk never really evolved beyond. And unfortunately, his stint as a UFC champion was also the most controversial period of his career.
After going 4-2 in the UFC as a welterweight — and losing a decision to Matt Hughes in a 170-pound title challenge at UFC 42 — Sherk dropped to 155 pounds to compete for the UFC’s re-launched lightweight title, which had laid dormant for over four years. Sherk met Kenny Florian for the vacant belt at UFC 64, and over-powered Ken-Flo to a bloody decision victory.
Despite Sherk maintaining he was 100% innocent, the perception of PED use haunted him. As Ben Fowlkeswrote on this site back in May 2008:
Let’s imagine, for the sake of argument, that you’re Sean Sherk and you know for certain that you’ve never used an illegal substance in your life. Let’s say that the lab somehow tainted your sample, and it came up positive. Imagining that to be true, what could you possibly do to clear your name now? You know you’re innocent, but here you are walking around with a chiseled physique, a positive steroid test, with a nickname like “The Muscle Shark” and trying to tell people that it’s not what it looks like.
While Sherk rode out his suspension, the UFC stripped him of his title, and let BJ Penn and Joe Stevenson fight for the lightweight belt, which was now vacant once again. Penn tore through Stevenson, and when it was time for Sherk to return at UFC 84, Penn wasted him too. The startling difference in talent-level between Sherk and Penn displayed in that fight made it seem as if Sherk had just been keeping the belt warm for Penn the entire time.
Sherk never came close to title contention again. He won a decision against Tyson Griffin in his next fight at UFC 90, in October 2008, but then lost to Frankie Edgar the following year, and pulled out of three consecutive fights due to injuries. Sherk successfully made it to the cage against Evan Dunham in September 2010, and despite scoring a decision victory, the fight was only memorable for how unpopular the result was. (Fightmetric scored it 29-28 for Dunham, and UFC president Dana White publicly echoed that sentiment.)
Since 2011, Sherk has popped up here and there to discuss his hopes for a comeback, but wasn’t interested in fighting “some chump who needs some fame.” Time passed, and Sherk’s interests never matched up with the UFC’s. By 2013, the Muscle Shark had become a forgotten man. And at some point, he realized that his chances of becoming a champion — or even a top contender — had permanently passed him by.
And so, Sean Sherk’s career ends anti-climatically. There was no “farewell fight,” no dramatic speech in the Octagon thanking the fans for whatever support they spared him. He didn’t go out on top, but he didn’t go out on the bottom either. He was a transitional champion who helped excavate a gold belt from the ruins, then passed it to the next guy. Maybe you didn’t love him, but hopefully you respected him.
Sean Sherk was an old-school fighter that kept the same mentality through nearly 14 years of competing in the cage and the ring, but a mounting list of injuries hampered his ability to compete. As a result, he announced his retirement from mixed martial arts Monday. The announcement about Sherk’s retirement was made during the […]
Sean Sherk was an old-school fighter that kept the same mentality through nearly 14 years of competing in the cage and the ring, but a mounting list of injuries hampered his ability to compete. As a result, he announced his retirement from mixed martial arts Monday. The announcement about Sherk’s retirement was made during the […]
