Which Fighters Need to Hang Up the Gloves?

It’s always a bit of a risk to go on record as saying that someone should “hang ‘em up”, particularly when you are not an elite athlete yourself.  However, it’s also clear that you don’t have to be a world champion mixed martial artist to have a good understanding of the sport, and hey, everyone has an opinion, right?  There’s been a lot of retirement talk over the past several months, with everyone from Chuck Liddell and Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic to (more recently) “Rampage” Jackson considering hanging up the gloves for good.  Who should and who shouldn’t?  Here are my thoughts.

Who Should Call It a Day

Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic- I would never have anticipated saying this a few years ago, when Cro Cop had given Fedor Emelianenko perhaps his toughest test to date, and had also won the Pride Open Weight Grand Prix.  When Cro Cop was at the height of his considerable powers, he was a virtual lock to send his opponent to the mat with either a combination of powerful punches or his trademark left high kick. 

Unfortunately, that is not the Cro Cop that we see today.  It’s not just that Cro Cop is not winning in the UFC, it’s also the way that he’s fighting.  Against Junior dos Santos, he backed away without answering his opponent’s strikes, rarely threw any aggressive punches or kicks of his own, and generally looked like he didn’t want to be in there.  Also, he is clearly not big enough to compete with the huge athletes in the UFC’s heavyweight division, and he has indicated in the past that he’s not interested in cutting down to light heavyweight.  He even admitted to thinking about fishing during his most recent fight.  If you’d rather be fishing than fighting, it’s time to hang ‘em up for sure.

Kazushi Sakuraba- We haven’t seen him in nearly a year, so maybe he is done, but I somehow doubt it.  Still, he definitely should be, because he hasn’t been himself in years, probably due to a number of brutal mismatches against the likes of Wanderlei Silva, Cro Cop, Rampage and other devastating athletes that were much bigger than he was. 
Clearly, he shouldn’t be fighting top level competition at this point in his career, and the problem is that Sakuraba will never be one to shy away from a challenge, even if he should.  He still has the ability to beat most fighters that he will face, but because he is too brave to know when he should pass on a fight, it would be best to see the all-time legend be done for good.

Ken Shamrock- Well, duh.  While we’re at it, let’s also mention Tank Abbott and just about anyone else from the original UFC days.  Actually, there’s a catch to that- there’s probably no reason for these guys not to take on each other- a Shamrock-Gracie rematch at a catchweight would be one great example, as well as the long rumored Shamrock-Abbott fight, but none of these guys should be facing anyone who is young and/or very talented at this point in their lives.  Beyond that, it’s just hard for me to tell someone not to do what they enjoy doing.

Who Shouldn’t Call It Quits

Rampage Jackson- I should say that I don’t really take his recent retirement too seriously.  Still, he warrants inclusion here just because he even had the thought of giving up fighting.  Sure, Dana White can be a straight-up clown sometimes, and he seems to like to call his fighters out in the media for whatever apparent reason. 

However, I side with White on the matter that acting will not replace fighting as Jackson’s primary source of income anytime soon.  I can’t fault Jackson for taking up a role that could launch him to a profitable career that will last him long past his fighting days, but MMA is just now becoming a very healthy business for top-level fighters.  Jackson already paid his dues for all those years, why not collect on that hard work now that elite fighters can really get paid?

Frank Trigg- It’s too bad that Trigg was considering retirement right after his loss to Josh Koscheck.  Koscheck is simply a bad matchup for Trigg, as I noted before their fight, because he’s better in every area than Trigg is.  That doesn’t mean that Trigg shouldn’t be in the UFC, however.  He will never wear the UFC Welterweight Championship, but neither will a lot of guys whose careers happen to coincide with that of Georges St. Pierre’s.  Does that mean Trigg shouldn’t fight at all?  That’s really his call, but a loss to Koscheck, even in quick fashion, does not mean someone is over the hill.

Wanderlei Silva- Wanderlei is a fighter who a lot of people have called out since his UFC tenure began as a person who should maybe give fighting up.  This has to do mostly with the increasing tendency of Silva ending up unconscious at the conclusion of his bouts, which is a good enough reason.  Still, Silva showed against Rich Franklin that he still has what it takes to be among the best in the sport.  He hasn’t gotten to compete in his new division yet, and I think he still has a couple of years left, at least, as a high-level fighter in this sport.  The knockouts are piling up, but he’s not exactly getting KO’ed by chumps, either.  He stood and banged with Chuck Liddell, as well as Franklin, for three rounds each and never got dropped, too.

The Jury’s Still Out

Chuck Liddell- Most would probably put him in the “should retire” category, but I’ll hold off a bit.  Like Wanderlei, Liddell has been ending up on his back a lot lately, but I chalk that up as much to his poor defensive tactics and fundamentals than anything else.  Liddell was cursed with what many would call a blessing- a granite chin.  The problem is, fighters like Liddell get used to not protecting themselves because they feel they can’t be knocked out, and sooner or later, it catches up to them.  I won’t say that Liddell should retire, but his next fight should not be against a top contender.  He needs to show that he’s still got something left in the tank before he gets to face a top-level fighter again.  Also, there are plenty of fighters in the division now- Lyoto Machida, Rampage Jackson, Rashad Evans, and others- that have styles that match up very well against Liddell, which doesn’t bode well for him.

Randy Couture- A lot of folks may think I’m crazy for even considering that the ageless Couture may want to think about retiring, but it’s as much a circumstance of the strength of the UFC’s top two weight divisions as anything else.  Couture is simply too small to make a serious run at the UFC Heavyweight Championship again, as he must fight a perfect bout to keep someone like Brock Lesnar or Shane Carwin from knocking him out with a huge right hand.  In the light heavyweight division, he would now appear to be too slow and would face fighters like Rashad Evans, who are quicker and have the wrestling pedigree to stifle his tactics to a degree.  It would be interesting to see how Couture would tackle a fight with Machida, however.  Couture probably has a year or two left in him, but even then, it’s doubtful that we’ll see him with a title around his waist again.

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Brock Lesnar, Chuck Liddell, Dana White, Fedor Emelianenko, Georges St. Pierre, Josh Koscheck, Junior Dos Santos, Lyoto Machida, Randy Couture, Rashad Evans, Rich Franklin, Shane Carwin, UFC, Wanderlei Silva