Shane Carwin Retires Amid Talks of a Return to MMA Under the Bellator Banner

It looks like Shane Carwin won’t be returning to MMA after all. Despite on-going talks with Bellator regarding a return, potentially as a replacement or alternate in their upcoming heavyweight tournament, Carwin announced via Reddit that he will be retiring from MMA competition. He cites terms of a potential contract with Bellator as his reason for confirming that he would retire:

We have tried to get fights it seems like there are no interesting fights and I am not getting younger. Let me just lay my gloves down right here on r/MMA. 

Thank you to each and every one of you. It is odd to be healthy and unable to compete yet able to compete when so unhealthy. I guess we end with never knowing what could have been. 

Somber would be the best way to describe the emotion. Thank you all for the love, the insults and the great times. I will sink back into the mode of being a redditor and my quest to become a mod here. I am also on the hunt for a large Fedora I am like an 8 and 1/2 in hats. <–Mod requirements.

Seriously thank you all from the bottom of my heart for being amazing and making this sport amazing. We feel the love and energy in the cage and it completes the journey. We love what we do because we get to do it for you. 

-Carwin

Carwin went on to host an impromptu AMA and answered a fans question regarding his reasons for walking away:

The contract I had and the one they wanted to offer after I showed them it was void was bad. On top of that I was going to be undercard. To me that said they did not want to be in the Carwin business. $40/$40 is rough when I was averaging mid six figures and seven for Lesnar. 

It needs to make sense with who and how much.

Carwin hasn’t competed in professional MMA since at UFC 131 bout with Junior dos Santos in June of 2011. The loss to dos Santos marked Carwin’s second, and the first decision of his 14-fight career.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 11/29/2017.