Knowing when to hang up the gloves is one of the toughest decisions a fighter can make—especially in the UFC. Most athletes don’t get that storybook ending; they push past their prime, chasing one more win, only to rack up losses that tarnish their legacy. But every now and then, there’s a fighter who steps away on their own terms, with enough self-awareness to say, “I’m done.”
Paul Felder was one of those rare cases. A gritty, all-action lightweight, Felder chose to walk away while he still had more to give, at least physically. While Felder stands by his decision, one person who isn’t so sure he left at the right time is none other than his friend and longtime colleague Jon Anik.
After his razor-close decision loss to Dan Hooker in February 2020, Felder was already thinking about calling it a career—right there in the cage. He admitted he was moments away from retiring on the spot, but Hooker, sensing what was happening, threw his hands up almost in protest, signaling to Felder not to walk away just yet.
That moment gave Felder pause. He considered giving it one more shot. But deep down, something had shifted. “I didn’t even want to go to the gym anymore,” he recalled. The fire just wasn’t there.
He would eventually fight one more time in a split-decision loss to Rafael Do Anjos later that year in November.
It’s been 5 years since, but Anik still believes it was a bad call from the former lightweight. So when Felder posted a video on Instagram to answer if he called it quits too soon, Anik jumped in with “Too soon. Yes.”
— THE UFCGUY (@the_ufcguy) April 1, 2025
What really stung was knowing what that win would have meant. Felder believed a victory over Hooker would’ve opened the doors to massive opportunities—matchups with top guys like Dustin Poirier, Conor McGregor, or Justin Gaethje; fights that could’ve led to title contention and, just as importantly, bigger paydays.
But when that slipped away, so did his motivation. With a steady gig on the commentary team already in place, he didn’t have to keep fighting to pay the bills. He admitted that with that safety net in place, stepping away from the sport came a lot easier—even if it wasn’t exactly on his terms.
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While Anik might feel that Felder made the wrong decision, in a sport as brutal as the UFC, it’s almost always better to step away earlier than to stay too long and watch your legacy diminish every time you step into the octagon. A select few in the UFC have done just that.
UFC fighters who stepped away at the top of their game
While many, like Tony Ferguson, continue until their performance declines (8 consecutive losses), some choose to step away while still at their peak, preserving their legacy. Take Khabib Nurmagomedov, for example.
After defending his UFC Lightweight Championship against Gaethje in 2020, he retired undefeated with a 29-0 record, honoring a promise to his mother following his father’s passing. Similarly, Georges St-Pierre, often hailed as one of the greatest mixed martial artists, retired in 2013 after a close win over Johny Hendricks, vacating his welterweight title.
He made a brief return in 2017, capturing the middleweight title against Michael Bisping, and then retired again, ending his career on top.
Henry Cejudo, an Olympic gold medalist and UFC double champion, defended his bantamweight title against Dominick Cruz in 2020 and then surprised fans by announcing his retirement, expressing a desire to pursue other endeavors outside the octagon.
However, that may have been a poor decision on his part. Cejudo would return in 2023 at UFC 288 and is currently on a 3-fight skid. Sitting 3 years of his prime while the sport passed him by was not an ideal decision since now he refuses to retire and instead fights like a shadow of his former self.
