The smartest person in MMA has retired from mixed martial arts competition.
Rosi “The Surgeon” Sexton received a degree in math with highest honors from Cambridge in 1998 (for American readers, Cambridge is like Harvard, but was founded in 1209 AD instead of Harvard’s barely-out-of-diapers 1636 🙂 Sexton was awarded a PhD in Theoretical Computer Science by the University of Manchester in 2003, a year after beginning her professional fighting career.
She went 13-2 over ten years, with the sole losses to Gina Carano and Zoila Frausto Gurgel. Career wins include Carina Damm, Debi Purcell, and Roxanne Modafferi, while competing in leagues like BodogFight, EliteXC, and Bellator. During this period she also bore a son, in 2007, and received a degree in Osteopathy from Oxford Brookes University, in 2010.
Sexton was on the verge of retirement when the UFC came calling, and last year she became the first British woman in the UFC, losing a decision to Alexis Davis at UFC 161. After another decision loss, to Jessica Andrade, she was released by the UFC.
Looking for one last fight, she could have taken an easy one – she’d earned it. Instead she faced undefeated Joanna Jedrzejczyk, and was stopped in the second, by strikes.
In her latest blog, Sexton, 36, looks back and ahead.
It’s nearly two weeks after the fight, and I’ve had time to sulk, throw my toys at the wall, feel sorry for myself, get drunk a few times and eat almost enough ice cream to take my mind off it.
After all that, though, it was time to sit down and think about where this is going.
Needless to say, the fight didn’t go to plan. I know I’m better than I showed that night. I believe I have more to offer as a fighter. I’m devastated that people didn’t get to see that. You’ve heard all this before.
I know so many fighters of my generation who are in a similar position, and feel the same way. We understand the sport better than ever; physically we still have it. But for whatever reason, we’re on a bad run. We could sit and analyse why that is – and I probably will – but it doesn’t change the reality.
There’s a talented new generation coming through. Joanna is one of those. She’s a great fighter, and will go a long way – and I’m not going to take away from her performance by dwelling on what I could have, should have, might have done differently.
Where do I go from here? I could keep chasing after the fight I’d finally feel happy to retire on. I’m afraid that as a fighter, I’ll be remembered for the losses, and not for what I did well. I’m afraid that’s what I’ll remember. There’s a large part of me that desperately wants to go back and put it right, as though I could fix everything with just one solid win.
Happy endings are elusive though. We know how that story often goes. And even if I did manage to produce that spectacular performance I’m looking for – would that be enough for me? Could any fight ever be enough? And what about after that?
I’m fortunate to have some great people around me. I’ve had some long conversations with a few of those people. The bottom line – right now I have more to offer the sport outside the cage than inside it. I don’t want to give up on being the fighter I believe I’m capable of; but there are bigger things going on. It’s time for me to focus on other ways of making a difference. I don’t know how this will play out, or what’s round the next corner, but it looks like it’s finally time to use that R word.
This isn’t how I wanted it all to end. The way it did will haunt me for as long as I’m around MMA, but that’s something I’ll learn to live with.
As a veteran coming towards the end of a career, you have a choice. You can fight cans, or you can fight prospects. Anyone can look good against someone who isn’t. When you fight prospects, there’s always a chance you’ll go down in flames. Living with the knowledge that I’d taken the easy way out would have been much harder.
Right now, there’s a new chapter waiting.
