...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
33-year-old middleweight Nick Catone has retired from MMA competition after lingering injury issues forced him to withdraw from next month's UFC on Fox 15 event.
The New Jersey native revealed his decision in an interview with MMAFighting.com, pointing at chronic back pain as one of the key factors leading him in that direction.
"I'm trying to play with my daughter on the floor and there's days I'm having a hard time getting up and I'm like, man," Catone said. "The stuff starts hitting you a little bit. There's more to it than just fighting.
"...It's hard to come to terms with yourself. It's something I've been battling the last week or two in my head. I want to get in there, but my body is just telling me something. My family and friends see me in pain and trying to push through it. I think it's not fair to them to see me like this and to myself as well. I don't want to get in there at 60 percent. That's not the place for me to compete against the best guys in the world. It's not too smart to be getting in there like that."
Catone was supposed to fight Vitor Miranda on the card in his home state next week, and he would have been trying to follow up on a win over Tom Watson last February. This already year long layoff followed a 14-month gap between fights into the Watson bout, and ultimately the injuries just added up.
"It definitely wasn't an easy decision," he said. "It's hard to walk away, especially at the UFC level. It's the top of the food chain. I'm gonna miss getting in there and mixing it up with the best guys in the world. I've had a good run and a great ride. Things didn't fall my way. I've just had quite a bit of injuries that have slowed me down over the last couple of years and I wasn't able to be as active as I wanted to be.
"I'm gonna miss it. It's definitely gonna bum me out for some time, but I have to find some other ways to fill that void."
Penick's Analysis: His body simply told him he couldn't continue. It's an unfortunate realization that he had to come to, but it's probably the right decision for him if he was concerned about being able to do things with his kids. His health and his family is certainly more important than trying to fight through injuries and risking further - and possibly irreparable - damage. It's too bad it had to come to that, but again, it's probably the right move for him.
DON'T GO YET... WE SUGGEST THESE MMATORCH ARTICLES, TOO!
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
