Former UFC flyweight star Ian ‘Uncle Creepy’ McCall has announced that he’s hanging up his gloves at the age of 33.
McCall had been plagued by injuries and other setbacks for some time, which left him competing only twice in the past three-and-a-half years since his final fight in the UFC.
To make matters worse, McCall lost both of those fights in the Rizin promotion, including a devastating 9 second KO defeat to Kyoji Horiguchi last time out that appears to have been the final straw for him.
“I’m retiring finally,” McCall told Ariel Helwani on ‘The MMA Hour’ show. “I think people have been waiting for this for a long time,” McCall said. “I’m done. This sport has taken so much from me — I shouldn’t say it’s taken, I’ve given this sport so much. And sure, I was the best in the world years ago and sure, people keep bringing up my ‘Al Bundy’ moment about beating Demetrious, ‘Oh, you’re the guy, blah blah blah.’
“I’ve had a good run, it’s been fun, but at the same time, it’s over. After enough shenanigans that I’ve been through, I think physically I could still do it. Physically I go in the gym, I train hard. I beat people up, I have a good time, I love doing it, but with my luck and I hate to be the guy that’s like, ‘It always happens to me, the bad things always happen to me,’ well they kind of do in this sport.
“I’m not gaining ground, I’m not getting closer to being the best in the world. The steps are getting farther and farther away and I’m not in this to be anything but the best in the world. And if I cannot compete at that level of the best in the world, then it’s just not worth it for me.”
