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Nate Quarry retires

UFC veteran Nate Quarry has decided to walk away from MMA after more than 10 years of fighting

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MMA Beat
By Ariel Helwani
updated 2:34 p.m. ET March 2, 2012

UFC veteran Nate Quarry has decided to walk away from MMA after more than 10 years of fighting.

An emotional Quarry announced his retirement on Spike TV's "MMA Uncensored Live" on Thursday night. Quarry said that after undergoing facial reconstruction surgery following his loss to Jorge Rivera in March 2010, he didn't want to put his daughter through the pain of seeing him fight again.

"The Rock," who made his MMA debut in September 2001, rose to prominence as a cast member on the first season of “The Ultimate Fighter” in 2005, however, he never competed on the show due to an ankle injury. Nevertheless, the UFC signed Quarry and he went 3-0 inside the Octagon before getting knocked out by Rich Franklin in a middleweight title fight in 2005.

In the end, Quarry walks away from the sport with a 12-4 record (7-3 in UFC). Despite battling injuries throughout his career, the now 39-year-old Quarry beat the likes of Jason MacDonald, Kalib Starnes and Tim Credeur, however, he never fully reached the upper echelon of the UFC's middleweight division.

Quarry will now focus his time and energy on his budding TV career and his clothing line, "Zombie Cage Fighter."


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