One of the growing narratives of the last couple years in mixed martial arts has been the increasing rate of retirement. Just in the last few months, fans have seen Dan Henderson, Miesha Tate, Urijah Faber, Mirko CroCop, Manny Gamburyan, Kyle Noke, and Sean O’Connell all call it quits.
In part, the culture around the sport seems to have shifted. Fighters seem less inclined to cling on to a career in MMA past the point of reason. But mainly, it’s just the realities of a young sport going through growing pains.