James Vick has announced his retirement from MMA
Former UFC contender James Vick has made an announcement on his personal Instagram page that he is retiring from mixed martial arts. Vick has had a rough time in his last few fights and left the UFC in pursue of getting back on track. Now after some self-reflection, Vick has decided to hang up his gloves.
“Few days ago I took the worst loss of my career,” Vick wrote. “I went out on my shield like I always have like a warrior. I am very sorry to everyone who helped and believe in me so much this last year. The truth is I haven’t felt that passion/love for fighting the way I use to in a long time. One of my main reasons for still fighting was to prove to my son that you can’t just give up when things get hard in life. But this is not the way to teach him that.”
Vick came to the UFC back in 2013 and put together an amazing record of 9-1. At that time he could have fought for a title but that opportunity never presented itself. His last four fights in the UFC were all losses and Vick was released from the organization. He took his last fight with XMMA and lost via second-round TKO.
“This is not like failing a test or losing a basketball or football game,” Vick wrote. “This is combat sports and this shit can be permanent. One of the last punches he landed I knew something was seriously wrong. I’m glad the ref stepped in because lord knows I would have been too tough and dumb to do that. My orbital is broke on my right side, the fracture went all the way through to the other side causing a Bilateral break plus my jaw is completely displaced so tomorrow they are finally doing surgery to fix it. It really was a perfectly placed shot. The Doctor said I could definitely fight again after this if I wanted to but this was my last fight. I can’t keep putting my family through this. I have reached the top of where I was going to get in Combat sports in becoming a top 10 fighter in the UFC.”
