“I’m gonna pursue the other goals in life that make me more happy than fighting” - Jimmy Flick announces retirement from mixed martial arts

UFC flyweight Jimmy Flick has announced that he will be retiring from professional mixed martial arts.

Flick, who was widely considered to be a rising prospect within the division, made the announcement on UFC on ABC 2 last night. Many were quite stunned by the decision. Jimmy was in the midst of a four-fight win streak and wass scheduled to fight Francisco Figueiredo next month - although that contest obviously won’t be happening if his decision stands.

Jimmy Flick calls it a day

Flyweight has rarely been viewed as one of the top divisions in the UFC but it had certainly been making some noise as of late.

The following quotes come from Flick’s announcement:

Jimmy Flick announced his retirement from MMA last night. https://t.co/jRH6RTrNJq

— MaRCeL DoRFF 🇳🇱🇮🇩 (@BigMarcel24) April 11, 2021

“And I’ve found out I don’t wanna be the next Conor McGregor or the next Demetrious Johnson. So tonight I step in this cage tonight and I’m telling everybody that I’m retiring from mixed martial arts and I’m gonna pursue the other goals in life that make me more happy than fighting.”

“It does bring tears to my eyes, but the UFC is not looking out for me, my wife’s looking out for me, my kid’s looking out for me and that’s what I want, I wanna be a father. I wanna go to work every day, come home to my family, I wanna spend time with my little girls; I wanna spend time with my wife.”

Every fighter needs to look out for themselves and their family, because at the end of the day, this is a ruthless business.

Mixed martial arts is beautiful in so many ways but it also comes with a string of issues. Flick clearly has some problems with how the UFC operates based on his “UFC is not looking out for me” comment. If he does stick to the retirement, we’d imagine more will come out over the course of the next few weeks and months.

The future of flyweight still seems to be in a really good place with more fresh talent coming through every day. However, acting as if this isn’t a big hit to what the UFC is building would be wrong.