Former UFC fighter Ronaldo Souza admits retirement was a long time coming, saying “I haven’t been wanting to fight anymore for some time.”

At age 41, Souza recently announced his retirement from MMA after being released by the UFC. Once an elite middleweight fight, “Jacare” lost four straight fights to close out his UFC career, including a brutal submission loss to Andre Muniz at UFC 262 where Souza suffered a nasty broken arm. Following that loss, the UFC decided not to re-sign the middleweight great to another contract, and soon after, Souza announced his retirement from the sport.

Speaking to AG Fight following his official retirement from MMA, “Jacare” admitted that he has had retirement on his mind for quite some time. Ultimately, Souza is happy with the way his career played out, but he knows that he has been both mentally and physically checked out for a while, and he is glad he now gets time off to heal his war wounds.

“I haven’t been wanting to fight anymore for some time. I’ve been fighting for many years and I think it’s a time for my head mostly. Before (this last fight) I already had this in my head and war wounds don’t let me down. I’m super excited right now (for the future), cool, it’s over. My opponent’s credit, my arm got stuck under his damn armpit. But I’m tired of fighting like this. I was even fat,” Souza said.

“It was a good time I had. I was very well paid within the UFC, I had several great fights, I spent seven years at the top of the middleweight division. I didn’t have the chance to fight for the belt. But I did it and I need to take a break for my body and head now.”

We here at BJPenn.com want to congratulate Ronaldo Souza on a fantastic MMA career.