Marcus Brimage, eight-fight UFC veteran who fought Conor McGregor announces retirement from MMA

Marcus Brimage is done with MMA.

Brimage last competed in MMA in July 2021 at XMMA 2 when he lost a decision to Kyle Bochniak to drop his pro record to 7-8. Since then, Brimage has signed with BKFC and is focused on bare-knuckle and after having his BKFC fight he says he is done with MMA.

“Yeah, I’m retired from MMA, I’m done with that,” Brimage said to BJPENN.com.

Brimage says the time to prepare for an MMA fight isn’t something he is interested in doing. Along with that, the pay to fight on the smaller shows isn’t what he is looking for at this stage of his career, which is why he is retiring.

“Right now, we are just working on things to enhance my bare-knuckle career. I’m fully on board with bare-knuckle,” Brimage said. “MMA, going back to it, it’s so much to prepare for, you got your boxing, your wrestling, your jiu-jitsu, your anti-wrestling, your muay Thai, your strength and conditioning. Somehow you have to work to make a respectable living and then your social life takes too much out. Now that I’m older, I have more responsibilities now I don’t have the time to dedicate to each thing. It’s mixed martial arts, you have to give time to all the arts in order to be decent.

“I have more of a focus on striking, I am able to get more training in as I can train with less,” Brimage added. “To train for an MMA fight, you have to have a facility, you have to have a team, you have to have a schedule, you have to have a nutritionist, and there are a lot of things you have to focus on. With bare-knuckle, I only have one thing I have to focus on and I focus on it well.”

Marcus Brimage (7-8) fought in the UFC from 2011 to 2015 going 4-4 with wins over Stephen Bass, Maximo Blanco, Jimmy Hettes, and Jumabieke Tuerxun. He started out his UFC career 3-0 before facing Conor McGregor in the Irishman’s UFC debut where Brimage suffered a first-round TKO loss.

Brimage also had fought Cody Garbrandt in Garbrandt’s UFC debut where Brimage suffered a third-round TKO. His other two losses came to Jimmie Rivera by first-round KO and Russell Doane by split decision.