7. Gabriel Gonzaga – 37 years old
Gabe Gonzaga has nine knockout losses to his name, and not many of them actually come from great fighters. He’s fighting against no-namers on small cards for small payouts at this point. He’s the guy who famously “Cro-copped Cro Cop” with an amazing head kick knockout, but you can only ride that wave for so long. Gabriel is a funny guy with a lot of fans, so he might be a perfect candidate to head over to Bellator depending on how his contract is looking, but at this point it just doesn’t seem like he can hang with the top fighters on the planet anymore. There’s so shame in that, he had a great run.
6. Takanori Gomi – 37 years old
Gomi is an MMA legend but he’s a 37 year-old lightweight. Worse, he’s not being given big-time fights at his age. He deserves better.
5. Urijah Faber – 37 years old
Another 37 year old! Faber is a former champion and one of the best fighters in the history of the lower weight classes, but there just plain aren’t any good fights out there for him with TJ Dillashaw likely to jump right into the title picture. All he can do at this point is face off with hotter, younger, better fighters and that does nothing for him. 37 seems to be the age where you reach the point of diminishing returns, where if you’ve made it this far without any massive amounts of damage, maybe it’s time to count your blessings and move on to the next stage in your career. Plus, Faber is apparently very rich with a lot of great business investments, so it’s not like he needs the UFC pay check. He seems to use his position in the UFC as a way to promote up and coming fighters from his gym and that he manages, which is a smart business move too.
4. CM Punk – 37 years old
Ha…yeah. He’s old (you guessed it! 37 years old). He’s inexperienced. He’s rumored to be making little progress in his actual training. He’s physically destroyed from 20 years of professional wrestling. And he’s set to fight a scary young man in Mickey Gall. CM Punk is the one guy who should probabally retire before even getting started, but it’s his dream to fight in the UFC and his dream is about to come true so – eh, give it a go, but this one probabally won’t be pretty. But can you imagine if he pulls off some stunning victory? In your wildest imagination? Nah, didn’t think so…
3. Ronda Rousey – 29 years old
She might already be retired, but yeah…clearly checked out on fighting. Doesn’t care. Has the opportunity to make good money in Hollywood and not get frequently punched and/or kicked in the face. Why come back?
2. Paige VanZant – 22 years old
Paige is in the same boat as Ronda but while Ronda would be coming back to make eight-figure checks in PPV main events, where will PVZ be? Fighting on Fight Night cares in Bangor, Maine or Yuma, Arizona? She doesn’t need MMA anymore, and she’s not making enough to really make sticking around worth it.
1. Rashad Evans – 36 years old
Rashad has been on a steep decline since losing to Jon Jones in 2012 and it doesn’t seem to be turning around. He’s doing great work as an analyst and it’d be great if he could do more of that, and less fighting. He had a great career in the cage, and he’s an awesome guy who is great on the microphone, so the last thing we want to see is any more tough knockouts.
Page 2 of 2:
