UFC welterweight James Wilks — who became the welterweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter: U.S. vs. U.K. after slicing through Che Mills, Frank Lester (twice), and DaMarques Johnson — has announced his retirement from MMA. The 34-year-old Brit has been sidelined due to injuries since his decision loss to Claude Patrick in October 2010, and finally gave in to doctors’ warnings that he could become paralyzed if he continued to compete.
As MMAJunkie explained, Wilks has spent his entire MMA career fighting with a fractured vertebrae from an old rugby injury, leading to a condition called spinal stenosis: “My bones are touching the spinal cord,” Wilks said. “There should be a gap, so when you get hit, you’ve got some leeway for it not to cut into the vertebrae. But my vertebrae have grown from the front and back, and they’re touching the spinal cord…I think if I was single and didn’t have a wife and a son to look after, I probably would have risked it. But I thought about it for quite a while and made the decision (to retire)…It sucks because I don’t feel I’ve shown what really have in the Octagon, and I didn’t want to go out on a loss.”
Wilks compiled an official record of 2-2 in the Octagon, including a decision win over Peter Sobotta at UFC 115. He’ll now turn his attention to teaching at his Lightning MMA gym in Laguna Hills, California, and extolling the virtues of a plant-based diet.
UFC welterweight James Wilks — who became the welterweight winner of The Ultimate Fighter: U.S. vs. U.K. after slicing through Che Mills, Frank Lester (twice), and DaMarques Johnson — has announced his retirement from MMA. The 34-year-old Brit has been sidelined due to injuries since his decision loss to Claude Patrick in October 2010, and finally gave in to doctors’ warnings that he could become paralyzed if he continued to compete.
As MMAJunkie explained, Wilks has spent his entire MMA career fighting with a fractured vertebrae from an old rugby injury, leading to a condition called spinal stenosis: ”My bones are touching the spinal cord,” Wilks said. “There should be a gap, so when you get hit, you’ve got some leeway for it not to cut into the vertebrae. But my vertebrae have grown from the front and back, and they’re touching the spinal cord…I think if I was single and didn’t have a wife and a son to look after, I probably would have risked it. But I thought about it for quite a while and made the decision (to retire)…It sucks because I don’t feel I’ve shown what really have in the Octagon, and I didn’t want to go out on a loss.”
Last week we showed you a BJ Penn video interview from Karyn Bryant in which the former champion vaguely spoke about his future, saying he had no plans to fight but refusing to say the word “retire.” However, according to UFC president Dana White, Penn told him that same week in Stockholm that he would in fact fight again.
“I heard some sh_t that he said he was going to retire and all this stuff,” White said. “[BJ] was like, ‘Nah, I’m going to fight again,'” MMA Fighting reports.
So there you have it. Despite saying that he was “done,” after losing to Nick Diaz last October, BJ will scrap again, according to his boss. I suppose we all figured as much, considering how much Penn loves fighting and how much money he makes doing it.
But the question is, who would BJ fight? Penn has only won one bout in his last five, albeit all against very top competition. At lightweight, the 33 year-old has seemed to have lost a bit of of quickness and reaction time — which is death in the lighter weight classes, and specifically for astalking counter-puncher like Penn. At welterweight, Penn is forced to pack on 15 pounds of unnecessary bulk, which has always been unfair but his crazy talent still allowed him to be successful there.
Last week we showed you a BJ Penn video interview from Karyn Bryant in which the former champion vaguely spoke about his future, saying he had no plans to fight but refusing to say the word “retire.” However, according to UFC president Dana White, Penn told him that same week in Stockholm that he would in fact fight again.
“I heard some sh_t that he said he was going to retire and all this stuff,” White said. “[BJ] was like, ‘Nah, I’m going to fight again,’” MMA Fighting reports.
So there you have it. Despite saying that he was “done,” after losing to Nick Diaz last October, BJ will scrap again, according to his boss. I suppose we all figured as much, considering how much Penn loves fighting and how much money he makes doing it.
But the question is, who would BJ fight? Penn has only won one bout in his last five, albeit all against very top competition. At lightweight, the 33 year-old has seemed to have lost a bit of of quickness and reaction time — which is death in the lighter weight classes, and specifically for astalking counter-puncher like Penn. At welterweight, Penn is forced to pack on 15 pounds of unnecessary bulk, which has always been unfair but his crazy talent still allowed him to be successful there.
There are guys Penn could fight and beat out there in the UFC, but it doesn’t look like he has a great chance to reclaim the lightweight or welterweight titles. So, will a fighter who has prided himself on only fighting the best of the best be content to hang around as a gatekeeper?
Or is Penn perhaps just looking for one or two big fights with other stars who are not in the title hunt? Who would you like to see BJ fight, nation? Should he smack Matt Hughes around some more? Settle the score with Matt Serra or Caol Uno? Should Penn poi-up and challenge the winner of Junior Dos Santos vs. Frank Mir in a Hawaii super-event?
The #RallyforMarkHunt fan campaign didn’t work, but maybe #BJvsFedor will!
(Come on brah, would you give up this life to wrestle with a bunch of fence holders? | Photo via FIGHT!)
My good friend Karyn Bryant, host of MMA Heat, recently interviewed former welterweight and lightweight champion BJ Penn and asked him if he was still retired. Penn said he was grateful for the attention but that he doesn’t intend to fight right now.
“At the moment, I don’t have any plans to fight,” Penn said. “I have nothing scheduled, I’m just kind of taking it easy at this point in my life. As of right now, yeah, I’m not entering the Octagon anytime soon.”
Penn says that losing to Nick Diaz last fall was not the only reason he decided to stop competing. “The fight was a tough fight but I don’t think it was just that fight. I’ve been thinking about this for a while,” he said.
Bryant revealed to Penn that she had spoken to his boxing coach Jason Parillo, and that Parillo said he recently held pads for BJ. So why would Penn be hitting pads if he was retired?
(Come on brah, would you give up this life to wrestle with a bunch of fence holders? | Photo via FIGHT!)
My good friend Karyn Bryant, host of MMA Heat, recently interviewed former welterweight and lightweight champion BJ Penn and asked him if he was still retired. Penn said he was grateful for the attention but that he doesn’t intend to fight right now.
“At the moment, I don’t have any plans to fight,” Penn said. “I have nothing scheduled, I’m just kind of taking it easy at this point in my life. As of right now, yeah, I’m not entering the Octagon anytime soon.”
Penn says that losing to Nick Diaz last fall was not the only reason he decided to stop competing. “The fight was a tough fight but I don’t think it was just that fight. I’ve been thinking about this for a while,” he said.
Bryant revealed to Penn that she had spoken to his boxing coach Jason Parillo, and that Parillo said he recently held pads for BJ. So why would Penn be hitting pads if he was retired?
“That’s a good question,” Penn said with a smile on his face. “That’s actually the first time I threw a punch since October, late October, since I fought. I don’t know. I was enjoying myself but I don’t know, it takes a lot. It takes a lot. These guys are the top athletes in the world, and it takes a lot of time and a lot of energy to compete with these people and you have to want to do it and you have to be there mentally.”
Penn’s words give insight to where he is in his life right now. After over a decade of fighting, perhaps he doesn’t see himself as having the commitment necessary to compete at the elite level he always has. Then again, watch the video below for yourself and notice that Penn doesn’t actually ever use the word “retire” himself.
“I’m on my own chopping block. If I lose to him, I’m quitting! I don’t even deserve to be in there! There’s not an easy fight. In the UFC, there’s no easy fight. He doesn’t deserve to be in there with me, and I’ll prove it. I’ll prove it in under a round, because, we see…I tend to get tired in the second round. [laughs] We’re both in a similar spot in our career I guess. We’re both on the chopping block. That’s fine. I’m really happy with that.”
“I’m on my own chopping block. If I lose to him, I’m quitting! I don’t even deserve to be in there! There’s not an easy fight. In the UFC, there’s no easy fight. He doesn’t deserve to be in there with me, and I’ll prove it. I’ll prove it in under a round, because, we see…I tend to get tired in the second round. [laughs] We’re both in a similar spot in our career I guess. We’re both on the chopping block. That’s fine. I’m really happy with that.”
As we’ve seen recently in MMA, threats of retirement aren’t always written in stone (see: Pellegrino, Gonzaga), and sometimes it’s just a matter of being super-pissed-off at the time. The only guarantee is that if Mayhem gets his ass kicked at UFC 146, he’s going to get fired from the UFC, and at that point, he may as well be retired.
CB Dollaway has been knocked out in his last two fights by Mark Munoz and Jared Hamman, and carries an overall UFC record of 5-4; another bad loss would likely cost him his contract. But despite CB’s rough patch, is it fair for Mayhem to say that “he doesn’t deserve to be in there with me,” in light of the notoriously terrible performance that Miller turned in against Michael Bisping at the TUF 14 Finale? “Pride goeth before the fall,” homey.
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