Mac Danzig Officially Announces Retirement From MMA

Longtime MMA veteran Mac Danzig has officially announced his retirement from fighting today after thirteen years in the cage, including the last seven in the UFC.

Danzig listed a recent string of concussions stemming from his three losses last year as the motivating factor for his decision. The 34-year-old father decided to call it a career before his health was further affected, reaching out to his fans via his Tumblr account:

After 13 years of competing in MMA, and 7 years of competing in the world’s premiere high-level organizations, I have finally decided to retire from professional fighting. This decision has been a long time coming, spawned by a myriad of reasons (I’ll touch on just a few here), and should come as no real surprise to most of you who have followed my career closely.

Working for the UFC over the past 7 years has been a spectacular privilege, for which I am truly grateful.   During dark times, even when some fans began to write me off, Joe Silva looked at my record for what it really was, not simply a numbers game, and continued to give me the opportunity to fight on the world stage for the best organization out there. This has been an awesome lesson in perseverance for me.

It has been a long, amazing, arduous, thrilling, painful, depressing, spectacular, self-realizing, worthwhile struggle of a journey, for which I have no regrets. That being said, in hindsight, my enthusiasm and motivation for competition definitely reached it’s peak around 2008 (after 7 years prior of toiling in the minor professional leagues) and it’s been an uphill battle ever since.

I really have been struggling the past few years with contemplating retirement. And with it in the back of my mind, my performance has suffered. Only those closest to me know about this. A true fighter never wants to give it up. The will to compete dies hard. I have had to teach myself that intelligently stepping away does not equal “giving up”.

Indeed Danzig had seen better times inside the cage as both The Ultimate Fighter 6 champion and the former King of the Cage lightweight champion. But his performance trailed off significantly in recent bouts, leading to eight losses in his past 11 fights.

Now we know why.

Danzig’s head wasn’t in the game; when that happens, it’s undoubtedly time to step down. He made the smart decision and will be remembered for his fighting spirit.

Danzig leaves the Octagon with three “Fight of the Night” bonuses, one “knockout of the Night,” and no regrets. We here at LowKick MMA wish him the best.