Sam Stout: Retirement ‘decision wasn’t hard’ since he ‘can’t take a punch’ anymore

Last week, 30-fight veteran Sam Stout called it a career after being knocked out by Frankie Perez at UFC Fight Night 71. It was…

By: Mark Bergmann | 8 years ago
Sam Stout: Retirement ‘decision wasn’t hard’ since he ‘can’t take a punch’ anymore
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Last week, 30-fight veteran Sam Stout called it a career after being knocked out by Frankie Perez at UFC Fight Night 71. It was the third consecutive knockout loss for the Canadian, so the decision to hang up his gloves wasn’t a tough one, as he revealed during the latest edition of the MMA Hour.

“I clearly can’t take a punch the same way I used to, so the decision wasn’t that hard for me,” Stout said (via MMA Fighting). “I’ve got a lot of miles on me. I’ve been doing this for half of my life. And I’ve got my daughter Logan here, and losing those last three fights by knockout. I’m not having any post-concussion symptoms, and I’m not feeling any memory loss or anything along those lines that you hear about some of these guys suffering from, but I don’t want to wait until that one shot that puts me over the edge and start having those. I’d rather not wait until it’s too late.”

Stout, known to be solid striker with dangerous knockout power and a historically impressive chin, has never been knocked out in his career. At least not until April of last year, when KJ Noons flattened him with an overhand right after only 30 seconds. From there on, Stout’s chin has never been the same again.

“I’ve been talking to some doctors and they say that once it happens once your body realizes, okay, I went unconscious this time and then the punishment stopped. Then it becomes your body’s way, like your body realizes that it’s a good defense mechanism against this kind of punishment. So maybe that’s what it is. I’m not a doctor, I can’t explain it. I just know I used to be able to walk through those punches without flinching, and now that’s three times in a row that I went down.”

Three strikes and Stout went out.

In the MMA Hour segment that you can watch above, he talks about how he will handle his financial situation after his fighting career and much more.

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Mark Bergmann
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