MMA Fighting<\/a>). \u201cThere was options to maybe get an osteotomy surgery, which means cutting the bone and putting plates and stuff in, but some athletes never, ever return after that because it\u2019s quite a big surgery. It\u2019s around a year of rehab as well and just at this stage of my career I wasn\u2019t wanting to go through that.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s been crazy. Eleven to twelve years this has been my life. That\u2019s it. Wake up, train everyday, and fight a few times a year. Even that didn\u2019t work out the best either, I fought an average of two times a year. A while back when I lost to Felder, I opened up my own MMA gym, Braveheart MMA, and started coaching, and even that was a nightmare to coach and also fight. Pretty much without going into too much detail I\u2019ve decided to retire due to health reasons. The knee, I can\u2019t compete at the level that I fight at and still\u2014and there\u2019s loads of people that said to me I should maybe have just fought a few more fights for a paycheck, which sounds alright going in, but again when you\u2019ve made a name for yourself and to go in and lose a fight just for a paycheck, to go in and possibly get knocked out because I\u2019m not able to train, I didn\u2019t think that would even be worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ray had three surgeries in an effort to repair is injured knee, but unfortunately, the issues persisted, particularly when it came to the wrestling and kicking facets of the MMA arsenal.<\/p>\n
\u201cGoing back, before that, for my last three fights my knee\u2019s been pretty badly damaged,\u201d Ray said. \u201cThose that train with me or are close to me know that I was having to spend a lot of days off training, icing my knee, when my opponent was probably training.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was f*cking with my head taking days off and not going into the fight as confident. A lot of stuff I wasn\u2019t able to do. For example, really struggling to wrestle and throw any kicks, so I had to really adapt all of my training.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it’s rarely easy for fighters to transition into retirement, Stevie Ray seems to be at peace with his decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve dedicated my whole life to it and it\u2019s hard to enjoy your life when the only thing you\u2019re doing is putting all your time into fighting,\u201d Ray said. \u201cBut I\u2019ve enjoyed it. I\u2019ve seen loads of different countries with the UFC, I\u2019ve fought in different places, I\u2019ve loved MMA. It\u2019s still gonna be a part of my whole life, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the course of his competitive career, Ray picked up victories over the likes of Curt Warburton (twice), Marcin Bandel, Leonardo Mafra, Mickael Lebout, Ross Pearson, Joe Lauzon, and Johnson. He retires with a solid 23-9 MMA record.<\/p>\n
Congrats to Stevie Ray on a fantastic career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Stevie Ray, who competed 11 times in the UFC between 2015 and 2019, has announced his retirement from mixed martial arts. Ray, a pioneer of the Scottish MMA scene, last fought in October, 2019, when he picked up a decision win over Michael Johnson in Singapore. Despite signing a new, four-fight deal with the promotion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":361863,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[30272,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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