Ray Borg isn’t retiring after all.
Shortly after being cut from the UFC last month, Borg issued out a statement confirming that he’s decided to move from MMA. As various news outlets picked up on the 27-year-old’s retirement statement, the Instagram post was removed shortly after.
The former UFC bantamweight understood the company’s decision to release him and during his interview with Sherdog, Borg stated that he texted matchmaker Sean Shelby letting him know that he was ok with being cut.
However, the realization of being cut from the UFC really hit home for the veteran soon after, with Borg being depressed following his departure from the promotion. Borg states that his feelings got the better of him when he announced his retirement:
“To be truly honest, my depression and stress got the best of me, and I was really in it that day. I was just done. I just didn’t want much more of the sport,” Borg said of his initial announcement. “I have a family. I have a wife, I have a son, and the first thing I thought to myself was, ‘I let myself get cut from the UFC, and I’ve got to put food on the table. I’ve got to provide, keep the lights on.
I think the best thing to do for myself and my family is to straight up get 9-to-5 (job).’ As gut wrenching as something like that is to say, I’ve got a son. He’s got medical bills. He has MRI check-ups and things like that. I’ve got to provide for him, and I’ve got to make sure that’s OK. So my first thought was, ‘I’ve got to call it quits. I’ve got to be done, and I’ve got to just live that blue-collar life.'”
Ultimately, Borg’s wife and the kids that he used to train changed his mind about retirement:
“I had intentions on retiring. I really did,” Borg said. “But I started getting messages from people, and the ones that really hit me hard were messages from kids who I used to coach and train, young kids who come from troubled beginnings and things like that. And I always strived and told them to work hard, and they can get themselves out of the gutter. And I had some kids message me saying, ‘Hey, coach, you can’t retire. You taught me to be tougher than that. You’re too young. You have too much skills. You can’t retire. It’s too soon for you. You’re only 27.’
“Then I talked to me wife, and to be honest, my wife didn’t really know I decided I was going to retire. So she comes at me (and asks), ‘What are you doing? Why are you retiring?’ I was like, ‘I have to. I’ve got to pay the bills for you guys.’ And she’s like, ‘Nah, you can’t.’ And she let me know I owe it to my son. I can’t have my son look at me in 10 years and tell me, ‘Dad, why’d you quit?’ I’m one of the most talented guys in the world, I feel. On a good day I’m unbeatable. I just couldn’t do it. I owe it to too many people to get myself out of this gutter and try to make it.”
Borg never states when he could make his return to the octagon; however, he knows that can’t return without getting his shit together first:
“It does sound OK to do that, but I don’t know if I can do that. There’s no way I can provide for my family the way that I have through fighting. And I’m really good at it,” Borg said. “If I take a year off, I think that’s plenty. It’s more about getting my outside life taken care of so that way it’s not affecting me inside the octagon. That’s the biggest thing for myself. I’m not too sure where it’s going to go. I do know I’m not retiring. I just have to get some (expletive) together.”