Earlier today, Alan Belcher, a UFC middleweight fighter who’s been on hiatus for over two years, announced his retirement from mixed martial arts in a Periscope chat. During the chat, which doubled as a speaking engagement where he was addressing gym owners and martial arts instructors, he told the room and the world that “I’m done fighting. I’m finished. I’ll never, ever fight again. This is my official retirement, Unfortunately, I didn’t get to do it after a fight, take my gloves off and all that stuff.”
Belcher had picked up steam in 2012 when he stopped Rousimar Palhares on a UFC On Fox card. While Palhares had been beaten and even finished before by top middleweights, Belcher was the first to dive straight into his leg lock game, showing patience and skill en route to pounding him out for a TKO win. That got him a shot against top middleweight contender Yushin Okami, but he lost a one-sided decision. In his next fight, against Michael Bisping, the fight was cut short by a serious eye poke and he lost a technical decision. While he occasionally talked about returning at light heavyweight, where he had fought before, that was his last fight.
In the Periscope chat, Belcher said that “I really feel like talking to instructors and gym owners, business owners is my calling now. That’s what I really want to do…I really believe that I could go down that road and fight again, but this is more important to me. I like teaching martial arts. I want to continue teaching students all over the world in my online businesses.”
