UFC flyweight Jimmy Flick shocked the community when he announced his surprise retirement from MMA. Now he opens up about what led to that decision, and why he chose to stop fighting at a relatively young age.
At 30 years of age, it came as a shock that Flick announced that he was done competing. After all, he was just one fight into his UFC career after getting a win on Dana White’s Contender Series, and what a debut it was.
Taking on Cody Durden last December, Jimmy secured a first round flying triangle that quickly made an impression with fans worldwide. It was one of the better submissions of the year, and put him in prime position for a big fight in his appearance, but instead he chose to retire.
Jimmy Flick Explains Retirement
We got a brief explanation as to why Jimmy Flick opted to retire, with a post that he shared to his Instagram. However there was more to the story than that, as he explained when speaking in a recent interview.
Here he explained that a big portion of his decision was due to a lack of longterm financial security or benefits for UFC fighters. While he made it clear that he had no beef with the promotion, he was just thinking about his family’s future.
“I need to justify what I mean by that. The UFC never did me wrong. I love everything the UFC did for me. I love the goals that I got to get to the UFC, to the person it made me,” Flick said.
“But what I mean by that is there’s no benefits of beating my body up no more being in the UFC. We have no 401k. We have no benefits. We have no fallback. Fighters are too stupid to unionize, and it’ll never happen, because there’s other fighters that will fight for that money. I love the money I got, but this is just to go show everybody that money doesn’t buy happiness.”
Another thing that led to his retirement was Flick’s relationship with his father. His dad had been a coach and mentor to him, but they had a falling out over his dad’s use of drugs.
When he tried reaching out to his dad to no avail, Jimmy realized that he was fighting for the wrong reasons. When he then opted to fight for his family, he came to the understanding that he was not going to lose his family in the same way he lost his father.
“He’s never asked me anything, and I’m not fighting for him no more,” said Flick as fought back tears.
“I’m fighting for my kids. I’m fighting for my wife, and I’m not going to lose them. And they’re way more than what fighting has ever meant to me. People need to know what goes on in fighters’ lives.”
Now that the decision has been made, Flick feels a weight off of his chest. He reveled in the fact that he was able to sleep in, and did not have to worry about the constant grind that comes with being a UFC fighter.
“I just feel free. I was so happy to wake up this morning at 6:30, instead of 4:30, 5:00 in the morning, to have a cup of coffee, to grab breakfast. My four-year-old woke up, daddy got her some milk, daddy got her cartoons on. It was great, and then I got to go to work,” Flick explained.
“I’m 30 years old, and I did everything I wanted,” he said. “The desire was not the money, it was not the fame. By the time they do unionize, or me and my dad work things out, I think it will be too far down the road. I’m not the type that wants to come out of retirement.
For fight fans it is disappointing that Jimmy Flick will never step foot in the Octagon again and realize his true potential. That said, it is hard to say that his reasoning is not understandable, and wish him the best in future endeavors.
