Kiefer Crosbie is ready to move on from the UFC – and MMA as a whole.
In his most recent outing in August, Crosbie (10-6 MMA, 0-3 UFC) was finished by Taiyilake Nueraji in Round 1 of their welterweight bout at UFC Fight Night 257. Crosbie was furious with the way referee Marc Goddard handled the fight after he was struck with an illegal knee by Nueraji.
Although Goddard immediately deducted two points off Nueraji, Crosbie thought he wasn’t given enough time to recover. A few moments later, Nueraji took Crosbie down and finished him with ground and pound.
Now Crosbie wants to close his MMA chapter and venture into other combat sports. In order to do that, he needs to be released from his UFC contract, which he respectfully asked for in an Instagram post.
“Post regarding my “retirement”.Nothing but love and respect for the @ufc and I appreciate them giving me the opportunity, it’s literally been a dream come true and something I’ve envisioned since I’ve been a kid! But I would respectfully like to ask for a release. Just being real and think it’s the right call to move on from MMA and go down other roads while I’m still in my prime. Thanks to everyone for the support 🤝☘️”
Crosbie, who previously competed for Bellator, reflected on his MMA career.
“I’ve had my first fight when I was 12 (2002) I’ve been competing forever with well over 100 competitive fights,” Crosbie said. “My dream since 2005/6 is to get to the UFC and I did that. It’s a shame I got there late and a bit older and how the fights played out but that’s life and I’m still proud of the fact I did what I set out to do. I’m not stupid, this is a young man’s game and MMA is so tough especially on the body but there are plenty of other opportunities out there that I would love to explore and plenty of fools I’d still love to humble. We ain’t done, we’re never done. I’ll fight forever. 💚☘️🙏🏻.”
