Matt Mitrione explains why he is “done with MMA”

Former Bellator and UFC heavyweight contender Matt Mitrione explained why he is “done with MMA” following his three-fight losing skid.

Mitrione recently was finished by Tyrell Fortune in Bellator for his third straight loss and his fifth fight without a win in the promotion. Bellator released Mitrione, and he now takes on Alexander Flores in Triad Combat. Speaking to MMAFighting.com’s The MMA Hour, Mitrione admitted that he is probably done with MMA now, and he explained exactly why.

“I would venture to say I’m done with MMA. Probably, who knows, I might really love (Triad Combat). Still, some people might call me ignorant for saying this, but I don’t feel that I have been outperformed in standup. My last three TKO [losses], [Sergei] Kharitonov — the one headbutt and the other headbutt — Tyrell [Fortune] the second one, and those are literally the first contacts of the fight. So I feel like if I’m gonna retire and be done, then I want to be outperformed. I want it to have been somebody that came in there and smoked me and whupped my ass at what I’m strong at,” Mitrione said.

“Then that tells me, ‘OK, you’re done. It’s past your time.’ But I think in having situations, fights that in my perspective should be overturned from a loss to a no contest, because the first impact of the fights is headbutts and those are illegal. I feel like that should be a situation in which I should be protected as a fighter. And if I’m not, which I wasn’t — and who knows what the hell (Mohegan Tribe Department of Athletic Regulation President Mike) Mazzulli is doing in Connecticut — so because of that and since he didn’t overturn them, then I have no choice but to leave the sport of MMA, because I don’t trust the commissioner or the referee or whoever the governing body is going to be to make the right decision. And I can’t take unnecessary beatings because a fight should have been stopped.”

What was your favorite memory from the MMA career of Matt Mitrione?