UFC lightweight and season three “Ultimate Fighter” Matt ‘The Hammer’ Hamill has reportedly retired from the sport of mixed martial arts following his second round TKO loss to Alexander Gustafsson this past weekend in Philadelphia fighting on the UFC 133 card.News of his decision first surfaced in a blog at Cincinnati.com, noting that “Matt Hamill, Loveland HS grad, is going to retire.” While MMAMania.com confirmed Monday afternoon that Hamill had retired.
Hamill has dropped his last two fights, a decision loss to Quinton ‘Ramage’ Jackson in May at UFC 130, and the TKO defeat to Gustafsson.
Previous to that, ‘The Hammer’ had been on a five fight win streak, which did include the Disqualification victory against Jon Jones at the TUF 10 Finale. Jones landed illegal elbows while on the ground and was given the loss despite dominating the fight.
Hamill started his career with the UFC as a member of Team Ortiz on the third season of “The Ultimate Fighter” back in 2006. Since debuting with the promotion at the shows final, Hamill has gone on to earn nine victories tempered with four defeats. He earned two “Fight of the Night” honors and one “Knockout of the Night” during his career.
Update: Hamill released this statement via his official website (which I am having trouble accessing but MMAMania.com posted his statement)
“Today is a sad day for me. After six years and 13 fights in the UFC I’m ready to hang up my gloves and retire from this amazing sport … I was ready to make this decision after UFC 130 but my friends, family coaches and most importantly my daughter encouraged me to give it one last chance. My career has been plagued by injuries starting with The Ultimate Fighter and disrupted my training ever since. There hasn’t been even one training camp where I’ve been able to train without training around an injury. I have not been kind to my body and it has nothing left after 28 years of non stop competition. It’s time to finally give it a rest. I can’t continue to fight without having the hunger and desire to do so. I can’t let my performances reflect on my coaches who are the best in the world and the reason I’ve made it this far. I have fallen in love with the sport of Mixed Martial Arts and I will continue to coach at our gym Mohawk Valley MMA along side my teammates and help the next generation of fighters make it to the UFC. I also look forward to continuing my business ventures outside the UFC including “Hamill” the movie based on my life story set to be released this fall …Thank you to all my friends and family for their unconditional support and most of all thank you to my fans! It’s the fans that have made this the truly special experience it has been.”
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