Light Heavyweight Matt Hamill Announces Retirement From MMA at Age 37

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For the second time in nearly three years, UFC veteran Matt Hamill has announced his retirement from mixed martial arts.

Hamill, a veteran of 16 professional bouts, announced his decision via Facebook on Wednesday.

“First and foremost, I would like to thank my most loyal fans for standing by me throughout my 10-year career with MMA,” he wrote. “All good things must come to an end, and I am saddened that the time has come for me to hang up my gloves permanently due to a nagging injury that has never healed and has worsened with time. The memories have been good.”

Hamill initially retired from MMA following a loss to Alexander Gustafsson at UFC 133 on Aug. 6, 2011. “The Ultimate Fighter 3” veteran cited an accumulation of injuries as the reasoning behind his decision then.

“My career has been plagued by injuries, starting with ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ and [they have] disrupted my training ever since,” Hamill wrote in a statement on his official website two days after UFC 133. “There hasn’t been even one training camp where I’ve been able to train without training around an injury. I have not been kind to my body and it has nothing left after 28 years of nonstop competition. It’s time to finally give it a rest.”

However, “The Hammer” would return to the Octagon a little more than a year later, where he would capture a unanimous decision against Roger Hollett at UFC 152. He did not fare nearly as well in his second outing, as he dropped a lackluster three-round verdict to Thiago Silva at UFC Fight Night “Maia vs. Shields” this past October. The defeat resulted in Hamill’s release from the UFC.

The lifelong wrestler signed a contract with the World Series of Fighting in May 2014. He was supposed to make his promotional debut at this weekend’s WSOF 11 but was ultimately forced to withdraw due to a knee injury.

Hamill, who was born deaf, leaves the sport with an 11-5 record, with all but one of his fights taking place in the Octagon. The Loveland, Ohio, native posted notable triumphs over Tim Boetsch, Mark Munoz, Keith Jardine and Tito Ortiz during his UFC career. Hamill remains the only man to defeat light heavyweight champion Jon Jones, although that victory came when Jones was disqualified for using illegal downward elbows.