Tag: unretirement

Georges St. Pierre Announces He’s “Ready to Return,” Calls for Title Fight With Michael Bisping


(Ahhhh the good ol’ days, right Georges?)

It’s been three years since Georges St. Pierre last competed in the octagon, three years the former champ has gloriously spent selling booze, signing boobs and unearthing dinosaur bones. It’s a life that stood in stark contrast to what we come to see from St. Pierre in the latter stages of his career — the self-doubt, the anxiety, the onslaught of strikes he was beginning to absorb in each fight — and one that GSP himself admitted to being more than content with. Georges St. Pierre was one of the all-too rare fighters to recognize that his best days were behind him and that is was best to step away from the sport while he still had his facilities intact.

And now, he’s ready to take it all back.

The post Georges St. Pierre Announces He’s “Ready to Return,” Calls for Title Fight With Michael Bisping appeared first on Cagepotato.


(Ahhhh the good ol’ days, right Georges?)

It’s been three years since Georges St. Pierre last competed in the octagon, three years the former champ has gloriously spent selling booze, signing boobs and unearthing dinosaur bones. It’s a life that stood in stark contrast to what we come to see from St. Pierre in the latter stages of his career — the self-doubt, the anxiety, the onslaught of strikes he was beginning to absorb in each fight — and one that GSP himself admitted to being more than content with. Georges St. Pierre was one of the all-too rare fighters to recognize that his best days were behind him and that is was best to step away from the sport while he still had his facilities intact.

And now, he’s ready to take it all back.

On yesterday’s edition of The MMA Hour, St. Pierre dropped the bomb that he was not only ready to return to the cage, but already had a fight in mind for when he does.

“What I did is I did a training camp to see where I’m at,” said St-Pierre. “I’ve been training, but being in shape and being in fighting shape is something different. I did a training to push myself and go back to the highest level of competition. I didn’t fight, but I put myself through a training camp and I sparred and everything, and I did it successfully. Now I know for a fact that I could go back and fight, if my management and the UFC get to an agreement.”

“I love my sport and I still feel I’m at my best right now. The clock is running. I’m not getting any younger. I’m in the peak of my career and if there is a shot, there is another goal, another run, I better do it and do it quick, because it is time to do it now.”

It’s a statement that sounds undoubtedly familiar to fight fans. GSP, like countless fighters before him, got a taste of the normal life and decided that he would rather go through the hell that is mixed martial arts to prove that he’s “still got it.” It’s not hard to see why he’d think such a thing; he did, after all, step away from the sport with the belt in hand and an incredible 9 title defenses to his credit. But you can’t help shake the feeling that “the clock is running” and “I’m not getting any younger” aren’t exactly the greatest reasons for returning to one of the most dangerous sports on the planet.

Our own Trent Reinsmith further elaborated on why GSP should stay retired back when the news was still fresh in our minds:

St-Pierre left the sport as one of the top five (or better) fighters of all time. If he comes back and loses, not only will his legacy be tarnished, but it’s entirely feasible that the UFC would use that loss to further step on what St-Pierre has contributed to the promotion. The UFC machine would undoubtedly use a victory over St-Pierre as the launching point of a media campaign for whatever fighter defeated the mid-30’s version of St-Pierre.

Plus, St-Pierre doesn’t need to fight. He’s made his millions; he’s appearing in movies, he has sponsorship deals. He’s doing exactly what (almost) every professional fighter dreams of doing: making money without getting punched in the head by the likes of Johny Hendricks or Nick Diaz.

This isn’t to mention that, in unretiring, St. Pierre would be casting himself back into the arms of the very people that buried him when he chose to step away from the sport in the first place. Does anyone even remember the unjustifiably dickish language that Dana White used to try and pressure St. Pierre into an immediate rematch with Johny Hendricks? Here, let us remind you…

“You owe it to the fans, you owe it to that belt, you owe it to this company, and you owe it to Johny Hendricks to give him that opportunity to fight again, unless you’re gonna retire…There’s no ‘Hey listen I’m gonna go on a cruise and be gone for two years.’”

You hear that? Forget the fact that George St. Pierre had spent the past nine years bleeding for the UFC and netting them millions of dollars in the process, or that he was questioning not only his future health but how the lax drug-testing policies of the promotion he was fighting for were affecting it, he was a fighter, and fighters fight whether they want to or not! Are you not entertained?! ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!!!

Why in God’s name would St. Pierre want to sign up for that circus again? The answer, or so it seems, is glory. Later on in his interview, St. Pierre then moved on to who he would like to face upon his return. His answer? Newly-crowned middleweight champ Michael Bisping.

“Look, it’s something big,” said St. Pierre. “You just give me the chills thinking about it, because it’s not the first time that people have mentioned it. I’m sure Michael and his side people have talked to him about it, because he creates a lot of buzz. I always said if I come back, I would come back for something very big. Bisping is the man to beat right now. He beat Silva, he knocked out Rockhold, Rockhold beat Jacare and Weidman. [Bisping is] bigger than me. [When I was fighting as a welterweight] I never really considered going up and going back down after, because I was the welterweight champion. Now that I’ve retired, I can make things more experimentally. I could, if I want to, fight at lightweight, as well. It would be easy for me. I could fight at welterweight, and I can also fight at middleweight. I’m not a big welterweight, and even though Michael Bisping is bigger than me, I believe if I fight him, I believe I’ll beat him.”

For what it’s worth, Bisping seems up for the bout, no doubt because it would easily make for the most lucrative of his career. And look, I’m not here to play the moral police and question whether or not GSP “should” come back from a mental health standpoint. As far as I see it, George St. Pierre is a grown-ass man who can do what he pleases, even if that means losing a few more million brain cells in a half baked quest to recapture the glory of his former self. He’s no different than Fedor Emelianenko, even if the latter’s most recent performance should serve as a shining example of why he probably *shouldn’t* come back. Completing a training camp is one thing, but actually getting back in the ring and squaring off against a bigger opponent than anyone you’ve ever faced before seem’s like a fool’s errand to me. Then again, that’s why one of us is a legend of the game and the other a legend in his own mind.

The point is…well, I’m not really sure. George St. Pierre has his mind set on coming back and the UFC is more than willing to make that a reality, so I guess all we can do now is watch the fight and wait until the aftermath to start questioning how terrible the UFC, MMA fans, and the members of the MMA media should feel for watching it in the first place. At least St. Pierre can do so knowing that the sport’s drug-testing policies are finally in order.

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The Progidy is Back: BJ Penn Booked Against Denis Siver at UFC 199

Like most MMA fans who prefer not to see the legends of the sport continue to fight well past the twilights of their careers, we did not exactly take the news of BJ Penn’s unretirement well. Following his *last* unretirement fight — a one-sided, horrific beatdown to rival Frankie Edgar at the TUF 19 Finale — a teary-eyed Penn openly admitted to reporters that he never should have returned to the sport, leading most of us to believe that he had finally learned the lesson that so few fighters do.

But a broken spirit and a declining skill set is nothing that Master Jackson can’t fix, and as such, The Progidy…er…The Prodidy…The Prodigy is back!

The post The Progidy is Back: BJ Penn Booked Against Denis Siver at UFC 199 appeared first on Cagepotato.

Like most MMA fans who prefer not to see the legends of the sport continue to fight well past the twilights of their careers, we did not exactly take the news of BJ Penn’s unretirement well. Following his *last* unretirement fight — a one-sided, horrific beatdown to rival Frankie Edgar at the TUF 19 Finale – a teary-eyed Penn openly admitted to reporters that he never should have returned to the sport, leading most of us to believe that he had finally learned the lesson that so few fighters do.

But a broken spirit and a declining skill set is nothing that Master Jackson can’t fix, and as such, The Progidy…er…The Prodidy…The Prodigy is back!

According to Kevin Iole (via BloodyElbow), Penn has officially been booked to return to the octagon. The former two-division champion will face German kickboxer and spinning sh*t aficionado Dennis Siver at UFC 199, which transpires at The Forum in Inglewood, California on June 4th.

With all do respect to Siver, the matchup is easily the most winnable one Penn has been given in close to 7 years. Seriously, look at the dude’s resume – Penn has fought nothing but killers for something like 11 fights in a row, and even his opponents before that were anything but cans. Having dropped two fights in a row and been sacrificed to Conor McGregor, Cub Swanson, and Donald Cerrone in the recent past, Siver has quickly transitioned from the UFC’s master of the spinning back kick to its go-to fall man, and a loss to Penn may very well see him get his walking papers.

That being said, this is a far more winnable fight for Siver than you might initially expect, based solely on how atrocious Penn looked in his last performance. Could six months at the Jackson-Wink camp really have regenerated the 37-year-old Penn to his former glory? And if it has, how long will it last? It’s hard to say, really, but all I know is that a win against Siver might be the worst thing that could happen to him. Lord knows he’ll be promoted to instant #1 contender status with anything resembling an impressive performance, and the thought of seeing him face whoever emerges from the Edgar-Aldo-McGregor pileup is enough to make you lose your lunch.

What do you think though, Nation? Is this the best case scenario for Penn, or is he once again sowing the seeds for his own demise?

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BJ Penn Officially Ends Retirement, Aims to Make a Run at Featherweight Title


(Oh, don’t put us through this again, BJ…)

No matter how many times we say it, it appears that fewer and fewer MMA fighters are willing to abide by our ban on unretirement. The latest fighter on that list: BJ Penn.

Yes, after hinting at a union with Greg Jackson and calling out Nik Lentz last week, Penn officially announced his second unretirement on today’s MMA Hour, stating “I’m coming back for honor. I’m coming back to do this, give everything I got.”

The post BJ Penn Officially Ends Retirement, Aims to Make a Run at Featherweight Title appeared first on Cagepotato.


(Oh, don’t put us through this again, BJ…)

No matter how many times we say it, it appears that fewer and fewer MMA fighters are willing to abide by our ban on unretirement. The latest fighter on that list: BJ Penn.

Yes, after hinting at a union with Greg Jackson and calling out Nik Lentz last week, Penn officially announced his second unretirement on today’s MMA Hour, stating “I’m coming back for honor. I’m coming back to do this, give everything I got.”

Clearly looking to rebound from his uncharacteristically poor, career-ending performance against Frankie Edgar in July of 2014, Penn stated a desire to prove himself as an elite member of his new home, the 145 pound division, as the main reasoning for his comeback.

“I want to go get that 145-pound belt. That’s definitely a huge motivation for me,” said Penn. “I believe with Greg Jackson’s help, I can get that done. And I believe that I will be able to walk away as the only man with three titles in three weight divisions.”

A lofty aspiration to say the least, especially at 37 years old. That being said, it’s hard to argue against seeing the potential return of Motivated Penn™, which is what he appears to be. Motivated, I mean. He used that exact word right there, and is apparently placing a “pull the plug” clause into his contract with Greg Jackson to let us know how super serious he is this time around.

And I told Jackson that if I can’t do this, you let me know. You come straight to me, Greg. You see me sparring one day, you look at me and say ‘this guy don’t got it anymore,’ pull the plug right now. I got a wonderful life back in Hawaii. I love my life. But I love fighting more.

And he’s very confident that we can get something done. With somebody like that, who has so many champions himself and who has does as well as he has in this sport, when he tells me that: ‘I know you can go out and I know you can beat all these guys,’ it gives me a lot of confidence.

You know, perhaps it’s fitting that, on the very day that Penn submitted Joe Stevenson to become the UFC lightweight champion back in 2008, he begins the journey that could possibly end in him securing the featherweight title. But even as a huge fan of the guy, I simply can’t overlook the odds stacked against him here. You know, odds like:

1) Penn is 1-6-1 in his last 8 fights

2) Penn has not picked up a win since 2010 — a 13-second KO of the similarly over-the-hill Matt Hughes

3) Penn is 37 years old

4) Physically, Penn looked the worst he ever had in his featherweight debut

5) You know who the current #1 contender at featherweight is? Frankie Edgar

While both Penn and Greg Jackson are capable of doing some amazing things, I’d just hate to see the former wind up like he did after his last fight — head clasped firmly in his hands, choking back tears and openly regretting ever coming back to the sport. That was a goddamn tough moment to sit through, you guys, and I can only imagine what it was like for Penn and his family. But as is so often the case with the warriors that this sport chews up and spits out, fighting is all that Penn seems to know, and if those around him can’t stop him from competing, how can we possibly expect to?

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Not This Again: Matt Hamill Wants Out of Retirement and a Rematch With Rampage Jackson in Bellator


(“F*ck yeah I’ll watch this again!” — Nobody, ever. Photo via Getty.)

We have lamented at length about Matt Hamill‘s decision to unretire the *first* time and the uninspiring results it garnered, but alas, it appears the TUF 3 alum simply refuses to listen.

That sounded wrong. What I meant to say was that our words have fallen on…goddammit, this was a terrible analogy to use.

Matt Hamill is un-retiring, again, despite recently retiring from MMA (again) due to “a nagging injury” that forced him out of his expected WSOF debut in May. And not only that, but now he’s calling for a rematch with Rampage Jackson in Bellator over Twitter.

“@scottcoker I want a fight with @rampage4real. The Hammer is coming back and want to come to @bellator,” tweeted Hamill last night.

Eesh. Where do we begin…


(“F*ck yeah I’ll watch this again!” — Nobody, ever. Photo via Getty.)

We have lamented at length about Matt Hamill‘s decision to unretire the *first* time and the uninspiring results it garnered, but alas, it appears the TUF 3 alum simply refuses to listen.

That sounded wrong. What I meant to say was that our words have fallen on…goddammit, this was a terrible analogy to use.

Matt Hamill is un-retiring, again, despite recently retiring from MMA (again) due to “a nagging injury” that forced him out of his expected WSOF debut in May. And not only that, but now he’s calling for a rematch with Rampage Jackson in Bellator over Twitter.

“@scottcoker I want a fight with @rampage4real. The Hammer is coming back and want to come to @bellator,” tweeted Hamill last night.

It’s a lofty request to say the least. Not only does a fight between Hamill and Jackson make absolutely zero sense no matter how you slice it, but considering the plodding suckfest that was their first encounter back at UFC 130 (which saw Jackson emerge victorious via UD), it doesn’t even seem like something fans would want to see again. Seriously, does anyone remember how sluggish and ineffective Hamill looked that night? Come to think of it, “sluggish” and “ineffective” would be two great ways of describing how Hamill looked in his fights against Roger Hollett and Thiago Silva after coming out of retirement for the first time.

This is not meant as a knock against Hamill, cruel as it may seem, but rather a call to reason. I can only begin to understand what drives a once prominent fighter to step back into the cage despite every warning sign that he shouldn’t, but rather than fall back on the same tired speech about why someone in Hamill’s inner circle should be stepping in and preventing this from happening, I think I’ll just list some facts:

– Matt Hamill is 38 years old.

– He has not fought since October of 2013

– Less than a year ago, Hamill cited “a nagging injury that never healed and has worsened with time” as the reason for his second retirement. An injury that has apparently healed through some sort of magic.

– Hamill is 1-3 dating back to 2011, and is 0-1 against Rampage Jackson.

– It is very likely that Bellator will take him up on his offer.

That last fact is perhaps the most depressing of them all.

–J. Jones

And Now He’s Retired (Again): Matt Hamill Hangs ‘Em Up Citing “Nagging Injury”


(via Matt’s FaceBook page.)

Sad but foreseeable news today, as TUF 3 alum, UFC star, and inspirational figure Matt Hamill has called it quits on his MMA career for a second and hopefully final time.

The announcement comes after Hamill was forced out of his World Series of Fighting debut at WSOF 11 with a knee injury, and was made via his Facebook page:

First and foremost, I would like to thank my most loyal fans for standing by me throughout my 10 year career with MMA… All good things must come to an end and I am saddened that the time has come for me to hang up my gloves permanently due to a nagging injury that has never healed and has worsened with time. The memories have been good…. 


(via Matt’s FaceBook page.)

Sad but foreseeable news today, as TUF 3 alum, UFC star, and inspirational figure Matt Hamill has called it quits on his MMA career for a second and hopefully final time.

The announcement comes after Hamill was forced out of his World Series of Fighting debut at WSOF 11 with a knee injury, and was made via his Facebook page:

First and foremost, I would like to thank my most loyal fans for standing by me throughout my 10 year career with MMA… All good things must come to an end and I am saddened that the time has come for me to hang up my gloves permanently due to a nagging injury that has never healed and has worsened with time. The memories have been good…. 

As you recall, Hamill initially retired following his second round TKO loss to a young up-and-comer named Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 133, citing the same nagging injuries that apparently still plague him to this day. Perhaps seeking a triumphant win to go out on, Hamill unretired a little over a year later, as MMA fighters are wont to do. Although “The Hammer” was able to score a unanimous decision victory over Roger Hollett in a largely forgettable contest at UFC 152, his subsequent decision loss to Thiago Silva at Fight Night 27 wrote home the notion that the game had sadly passed him by.

His recent woes aside, there’s no denying the impact Hamill had on the UFC, its fans, and the deaf community during his MMA career, which saw him score wins over Keith Jardine, Tito Ortiz, Mark Munoz, Jon Jones (technically), and Michael Bisping (not technically but c’mon). Having had the brief opportunity to train with Hamill prior to his fight with Rich Franklin at UFC 88, I can personally attest to the quality of his character and would like to wish him the best of luck wherever the road takes him.

Show Hamill some love one final time in the comments section.

–J. Jones

On Matt Hamill’s Unretirement and Firing: A Lament


(Who saw this coming? We did, that’s who. Photo via Getty.)

Until his initial retirement back in August of 2011, Matt Hamill was considered by most to be a perennial contender at 205 lbs., a fierce grappler with ever-improving striking and a positively inspirational member of the deaf community. While the latter accolade still remains true two years and one unretirement later, the former have seemingly (and sadly) all but vanished in Hamill’s recent octagon appearances.

Following his lackluster decision loss to Quinton Jackson at UFC 130 and a second round drubbing at the hands of Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 133, Hamill quietly stepped away from the sport, stating:

I was ready to make this decision after UFC 130 but my friends, family coaches and most importantly my daughter encouraged me to give it one last chance. My career has been plagued by injuries starting with The Ultimate Fighter and disrupted my training ever since.

There hasn’t been even one training camp where I’ve been able to train without training around an injury. I have not been kind to my body and it has nothing left after 28 years of non stop competition. It’s time to finally give it a rest.

I have fallen in love with the sport of Mixed Martial Arts and I will continue to coach at our gym Mohawk Valley MMA along side my teammates and help the next generation of fighters make it to the UFC. 

You see, that’s the thing that has irked us most about Hamill’s decision to unretire (and we’ve mentioned this before) — his retirement, this statement, was just so, appropriate. Hamill seemed self-aware, he seemed content, and most of all, he seemed comfortable with the legacy he had left behind while understanding that his time — as a fighter, at least — had come and gone. It was a mature, thoughtful decision not often reached by most combat sports athletes, let alone MMA fighters. It was closure.

Less than a year after making said decision, Hamill recanted on it. And now, rather than retire with the aforementioned sense of closure, it appears that Hamill has been released by the UFC following his disheartening loss to Thiago Silva at Fight Night 29. God only knows what lies in store for “The Hammer” now.


(Who saw this coming? We did, that’s who. Photo via Getty.)

Until his initial retirement back in August of 2011, Matt Hamill was considered by most to be a perennial contender at 205 lbs., a fierce grappler with ever-improving striking and a positively inspirational member of the deaf community. While the latter accolade still remains true two years and one unretirement later, the former have seemingly (and sadly) all but vanished in Hamill’s recent octagon appearances.

Following his lackluster decision loss to Quinton Jackson at UFC 130 and a second round drubbing at the hands of Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 133, Hamill quietly stepped away from the sport, stating:

I was ready to make this decision after UFC 130 but my friends, family coaches and most importantly my daughter encouraged me to give it one last chance. My career has been plagued by injuries starting with The Ultimate Fighter and disrupted my training ever since.

There hasn’t been even one training camp where I’ve been able to train without training around an injury. I have not been kind to my body and it has nothing left after 28 years of non stop competition. It’s time to finally give it a rest.

I have fallen in love with the sport of Mixed Martial Arts and I will continue to coach at our gym Mohawk Valley MMA along side my teammates and help the next generation of fighters make it to the UFC. 

You see, that’s the thing that has irked us most about Hamill’s decision to unretire (and we’ve mentioned this before) — his retirement, this statement, was just so, appropriate. Hamill seemed self-aware, he seemed content, and most of all, he seemed comfortable with the legacy he had left behind while understanding that his time — as a fighter, at least — had come and gone. It was a mature, thoughtful decision not often reached by most combat sports athletes, let alone MMA fighters. It was closure.

Less than a year after making said decision, Hamill recanted on it. And now, rather than retire with the aforementioned sense of closure, it appears that Hamill has been released by the UFC following his disheartening loss to Thiago Silva at Fight Night 29. God only knows what lies in store for “The Hammer” now.

Although Hamill insisted that he had *finally* recovered from the nagging training injuries that had affected him for years upon returning to the sport in early 2012 (sound familiar?), his “comeback” performance against Roger Hollett — who holds the distinct honor of being brought in as a late-notice injury replacement for himself — at UFC 152 spoke quite to the contrary. The fight was tough to watch for a multitude of reasons, the most damning of which being Hamill’s sloppy, tired performance against a similarly gassed fighter he would have rolled through less than a year prior.

We tried writing off Hamill’s performance as the result of ring rust, but don’t we always with guys we generally wish the best for? When he was paired with Thiago Silva at Fight Night 29, however, we reacted with legitimate fear. To borrow a much-overused phrase, Hamill had nothing left to prove. Likewise, the beating he was surely set to endure would only tarnish the legacy he had worked so hard to build.

It was by the grace of God that Silva showed up in as poor of shape as he did, because we can only imagine what he would have done to Hamill had he put a good training camp in. Within two rounds, Hamill was literally staggering around the octagon as a result of Silva’s leg kicks, his hands on his hips, too tired to even return fire. While happening upon a replay of the fight at a bar some two days later, my father could only muster to me that “the white guy looks like he just stumbled out of here and into that ring.” It was a surprisingly accurate assessment.

To put it politely, Matt Hamill never should have unretired. Neither should most of the fighters who choose to do so.

Of course, the obvious counter to my long-winded lament is, “Who are you to decide when a fighter should retire?” And I have no counter for your counter, other than to simply ask, ”Have Hamill’s past two fights done anything to *improve* your image of him?” Were the last couple paychecks he received worth the abuse and humiliation?

I write this as a fan, Matt. I write this as someone who has followed your MMA career from the beginning. Hell, I write this as a fellow human being. Please, see this as a sign. See this as a sign to be the exception to the rule, as you have been your entire career, and retire (again) before you inflict anymore unnecessary punishment on yourself. Because the last thing this sport needs is another fighter who simply refuses to accept his mortality.

Oh yeah, and it looks like David Mitchell and Nandor Guelmino have been fired as well. Their career eulogies are forthcoming.

–J. Jones