Former UFC flyweight title challenger Ray Borg is no longer retired from mixed martial arts.
Borg announced his retirement last week, shortly after he was released from the UFC, conceding that he never expected to hang up the gloves at such a young age.
“Been in this game for a solid 14 years, never did I think retirement would come at the age of 27,” Borg wrote on his Instagram account. “But some decisions are harder than others and I have to make sure I am making the right one for my family. I appreciate all the love the MMA community has shown my family over the years but it may be time to move on to the next chapter of my life. Much love everyone!”
Luckily for Ray Borg fans, his retirement plans didn’t stick.
“To be honest, my depression and stress got the best of me, and I was really in it that day. I was done. I just really didn’t want more of the sport,” Borg told Sherdog (h/t The Mac Life). “I have a family, a wife and a son, and the first thing I thought to myself was, ‘I let myself get cut from the UFC, and I’ve got to put food on the table’. I think the best thing to do for myself and my family is to straight-up get a nine to five [job]. As gut-wrenching as something like that is to say. I had intentions on retiring. I really did.
“But I started getting messages from people, and the ones that really hit me hard were messages from kids I used to coach and train. Young kids who come from troubled beginnings. And I always told them to work hard and they can get themselves out of the gutter. And I had some kids message me saying, ‘Hey coach, you can’t retire. You taught me to be tougher than that. It’s too soon for you, you’re only 27.’ Then I talked to me wife, and to be honest, my wife didn’t know I decided I was going to retire. So she comes at me [and asks], ‘What are you doing? Why are you retiring?’ I was like, I have to. I’ve got to pay the bills for you guys. And she’s like, ‘Nah, you can’t.’ And she let me know I owe it to my son. I can’t have my son look at me in 10 years and tell me, ‘Dad, why did you quit?’”
