Former UFC featherweight champion Germaine de Randamie has announced that she’s retiring from the sport at the age of 40.
In her retirement post GDR revealed that after being unable to secure her hope of having one final fight before the end of the year, she’ll now go ahead with her plan to hang up her gloves.
“With so many mixed feelings I’m sharing this message with you guys,” de Randamie said on Instagram.
“I definitely didn’t plan or envisioned/dreamed it this way, but hey it is what it is sometimes. I begged the UFC for 1 more fight. But it had to be this year. I promised myself I would retire from fighting December 31st 2024.
“Unfortunately the UFC told me all cards are fully booked. That’s why I decided that the time is now. I really wished I could have walked the walk one more time. But I guess it was not meant to be.
“To many people to thank personally so thank you all for being a part of my journey❤️ Thank you for all the amazing memories. I’m forever grateful for all of them. Like I always say “ DIE WITH MEMORIES, NOT DREAMS”
The Ironlady has left the building ushhh .”
For the record, the UFC offered de Randamie a fight against Jacqueline Cavalcanti in their first event of 2025 on January 11th, but it seems the fighter had her heart set on not fighting on beyond the end of the year.
It’s not hard to see why de Randamie would be ready to retire as she has been competing in professional combat sports for almost 25 years now, starting with a long run as an undefeated kickboxer, amassing well over 40 fights there before turning her attention fully to MMA.
De Randamie would go on to win the UFC’s inaugural 145lb women’s title after beating Holly Holm on the scorecards, and would later also compete for the bantamweight title against Amanda Nunes, though she lost out by unanimous decision on that occasion.
In total GDR posted a 7-3 UFC record, including notable wins against the likes of Juliana Pena, Aspen Ladd and Raquel Pennington along the way.
Check out de Randamie’s full video post below.
