Cathal Pendred Retires From MMA

In a big surprise to many in the MMA scene, Irish UFC fighter Cathal Pendred today announced his retirement from mixed martial arts competition via Twitter.

In the statement Pendred cited a loss of passion for the sport and a want to move on to other things while maintaining a non-fighting role in the sport.

The full statement is as follows.

Onto the next chapter….. pic.twitter.com/ebKMx666qP

— Cathal Pendred (@Pendred) November 25, 2015

Pendred was a stand-out on the European scene and entered The Ultimate Fighter house, and subsequently the UFC, having held the Cage Warriors welterweight strap. In the world’s biggest promotion Pendred had a largely successful, if not always exciting, series of fights. In his UFC debut “The Punisher” had the comeback of the year against Mike King which was followed up by two close decision wins over Gasan Umalatov and Sean Spencer before he travelled to Mexico and convincingly beat an unwilling Dodger Montano on home soil. In his last two outings, though, Pendred came out on the losing side against John Howard and Tom Breese who heavily KO’d the Dubliner in his hometown.

In his 22 fight career Pendred had 17 wins, 4 losses and a draw and retires with a 4-2 UFC record.