MMA veteran Seth Petruzelli has called time on his career after suffering a knockout loss to Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal at Bellator 96 on Wednesday night.
In a statement he says that his heart hasn’t been in competing for a few years and so at the age of 33 he’s now made the decision to hang up his gloves for good, though he will still stay involved in the sport via his own gym.
Petruzelli is best known for his fight with Kimbo Slice at Elite XC: Heat in 2008. At the time interest in Kimbo was at an all-time high, he was by far Elite XC’s biggest draw and he was still undefeated.
‘The Silverback’ was drafted in on less than a day’s notice after Ken Shamrock pulled out injured and proceeded to derail the YouTube star’s hype train live on CBS with 4.5 million viewers watching by KO’ing him in just 43 seconds, pretty much putting the final nail in Elite XC’s coffin as well in the process.
Prior to that Petruzelli had appeared on The Ultimate Fighter season 2, reaching the semi-finals stage and over the course of his career he fought for the UFC three times, though he failed to pick up a victory inside the Octagon.
In total he bows out of the sport with a 14-8 career record. Check out his full retirement statement below.
“I want to thank my family, friends, fiancée and fans for being by my side these past 13 years plus of my MMA career. Every time I fought it was to please and excite you but most of all make you proud of me. Up until a couple years ago it pleased and excited me as well. That is where I went wrong, for the past couple years I have been fighting for the wrong reasons, I don’t have the desire or drive to fight like I used to and the past couple fights have shown it. So at this point in my life I would like to officially announce my retirement from the sport of MMA. Competing has been a part of my life since I was 6 years old, now I would like to put more of an effort into seeing my students/fighters do the same and making my gym grow and flourish. MMA has taken me around the world, let me meet the best and worst of people and made me feel like the brightest star but also like a black hole at times … and I have no regrets because I did it all my way.”
