On Saturday night in Milwaukee, veteran UFC lightweight Bobby Green stepped into the cage with dangerous prospect Drakkar Klose. Despite a solid effort, Green ultimately gave up a unanimous decision loss to his foe.
Shortly after this defeat, Bobby Green took Instagram, where he announced his retirement from MMA — though this post has since been deleted.
“It is an interesting world we live in,” he said (transcript via MMA Mania). “I felt I won but when we got these judges, you know. I think I’m done. I think I’m done. I’m going to retire. I’m going to focus on my kids. Focus on their upbringing. We give a lot of time away for this sport from my family. I’m done. Thank you all for supporting me. I retire.”
“I don’t have to deal with the (expletive) judges or deal with some of the lifestyle that comes with this,” he continued. “Thank you all for your support. I will be deleting all my social media, and I’m done. But thank you so much. I hope I inspired someone to do some thing. It’s an honor and a blessing to have done this. Love you.”
If this retirement is indeed final, Bobby Green leaves the competitive circuit with a strong 24–8–1 overall record. Over the course of his impressive career, which has unfurled in the KOTC, Strikeforce and UFC cages, he’s defeated names like Dan Lauzon, “Felony” Charles Bennett, Daron Cruickshank, Jacob Volkmann, James Krause, Pat Healy, Josh Thomson and Erik Koch. Green has lost four of his last six fights, coming up short against top-flight foes in Edson Barboza, Dustin Poirier, Rashid Magomedov, and now Klose.
Congrats on a great career, Bobby Green!
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 12/17/2018.