Another retirement is in the record books.
First, former UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman retired. Though he would walk back that retirement a few days later when he signed to GFL. Former UFC Middleweight Champion Dominick Cruz recently called it quits. Molly McCann and Antonina Shevchenko just retired. Anthony Smith is retiring this month. There’s a couple of other names I didn’t mention. Now Jared Gooden has decided to walk away for good.
The former UFC star confirmed his time in MMA has come to an end in a quick statement.
“I want to take this time to let everybody know that my time has come,” Gooden said. “I’m walking away from the sport. Thank you to everybody who’s helped me along my journey, to get me to where I have been in life, but to be honest with you guys, I just don’t have the love or the passion I have anymore like I used to when I was younger.”
Gooden has had two stints with UFC. He came into the UFC in 2020 on a record of 17 wins and 4 losses. The 31-year-old was riding a nice three-fight winning streak leading into his debut, but that was quickly shattered in his first UFC fight against Alan Jouban. It didn’t get any better for his next bout against Abubakar Nurmagomedov. Gooden was released from his contract in 2021, with him only winning one fight out of four. He regained his momentum in outside MMA promotions and came back into the UFC with a strong two-fight winning streak.
But Gooden lost to Carlston Harris and his latest stint with the company would end after his second loss to Chidi Njokuani. The Light Heavyweight would go back to an outside promotion in March, but came out on the losing end again. Though Gooden didn’t particularly have a strong career like some of the names mentioned, he was still an entertaining fighter with a couple of well deserved performance of the night honors under his belt. Gooden ends his career with 23 wins and 11 loses. The former UFC star is still young, so it wouldn’t be too surprising if he opted to return a few years later. Otherwise, best of luck to Jared Gooden in his future endeavors!