Cody McKenzie officially retires from MMA competition

Bloody Elbow 2.0 | Anton Tabuena

Following a disappointing first round KO loss to Fight Club Berkut standout Beslan Isaev, Cody McKenzie has officially retired from MMA competition.

McKenzie finishes his career with a 15-6 record in professional competition and a 3-4 run during his tenure with the UFC. He also ends his career on a two-fight losing streak.

I’m done fighting I would call it retiring but I never made no money so yea I quit.

— . (@TheCodyMcKenzie) December 18, 2014

Prior to his fight with Isaev, McKenzie sat down with BloodyElbow and revealed that he had already contemplated retirement prior to his fight at M-1 Challenge 54/ACB 12.

“I was actually close to retiring; I wasn’t going to stop fighting completely as it is in my blood – who I am. But before M-1 I was going to focus on my fishing, where I made twice as much as in the UFC. Even M-1 is paying me better than the UFC did over the last five years,” McKenzie told BloodyElbow.com.

His apparent frustration stems from his concerns regarding UFC fighter pay and how he never found financial stability while under contract with MMA’s top promotion.

“I did three fights for free (TUF house) and all this other bullshit over five years. I never made any real money. I still have my same car; I don’t own a house or anything.”

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About the author

Karim Zidan

Karim Zidan is a investigative reporter and feature writer focusing on the intersection of sports and politics. He has written for BloodyElbow since 2014 and has served as an associate editor since 2016. He also writes for The New York Times and The Guardian. Karim has been invited to speak about his work at numerous universities, including Princeton, and was a panelist at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival and the Oslo Freedom Forum. He also participated in the United Nations counter-terrorism conference in 2021. His reporting on Ramzan Kadyrov’s involvement in MMA, much of which was done for Bloody Elbow, has led to numerous award nominations, and was the basis of an award-winning HBO Real Sports documentary.