Original ‘Ultimate Fighter’ Mike Swick Announces Retirement After UFC 189 Loss

As of right now, UFC 189: Mendes vs. McGregor is currently being debated among the MMA community as the best pay-per-view under the promotion, as well as in the sport, of all time. Some even claim the premier event is even better than UFC 100: Lesnar vs. Mir II. With the match Robbie Lawler and Rory MacDonald participated in for the UFC Welterweight Championship, it is no wonder why.

However, UFC 189: Mendes vs. McGregor wasn’t a good night for everyone. For Mike Swick, it was his fourth loss out of his last five fights. Because of this, it is now reported that he has announced his retirement from MMA.

According to The Score, Mike Swick — who is one of the original “Ultimate Fighters” — decided to hang up the four-ounce gloves. Swick made his intentions known via announcement on his official Facebook page when he wrote the following to his fans.

“July 11th 2015 at UFC 189 was officially my final fight. I was healthy and injury free for the first time in 8 years but still couldn’t put my game together. There comes a time when every fighter realizes he is older and not what he use to be and I want to acknowledge this and stay true and honest to what I have always said, that I will leave when I know I am done. It’s a hard thing to do considering everyone wants to go out on top, unfortunately when your actually on top, you never wanna go out.”

Apparently, Mike Swick is only retiring from competition. Swick still has plans to build up future fighters in his dream gym located in Thailand.

“Though I am retiring from fighting, I will stay a big part of this sport as I continue to build fighters and grow my dream gym AKA Thailand. This gym is a massive project that has taken us 5 years to put together and once we are done, it will be the largest and most unique fight gym in the world. I am so proud to have such a great team of people behind it and I will now give my full effort towards its progress and the business surrounding it.”

At age 36, it is a good age for Mike Swick to leave active competition and focus on the new generation of upcoming MMA fighters. Not only that, 15 years and 21 fights would surely take its toil on his body. Yahoo! Sports included the fact that even though Swick was a gifted fighter, his career was plagued with illnesses and injuries that prevented him from reaching his full potential. By the time he was healthy and injury-free, Swick was not exactly too old to keep up with the newer fighters, but possibly too war torn from constantly fighting less than 100 percent.

Mike Swick began his career back in November 7, 1998, for the now-defunct Power Ring Warriors (PRW) promotion. And as of July 11, 2015, Swick is officially retired from competition with a 15-6-0 MMA record, in which 15 of those fights were in, or affiliated with, UFC.

[Image via Lars Baron/Getty]