Retiree at 33: MacDonald reveals hardest part of retirement

It is now 2025, the former UFC and Bellator fighter has now been out of the octagon for almost three years now and living a more calm and peaceful life with his family.

Rory MacDonald decided to retire at the age of 33. His decision didn’t come inside of the UFC or Bellator, but in the PFL in 2022.

MacDonald hung up his gloves after a TKO loss Dilano Taylor, it was only his 34^th professional fight.

His departure from the UFC happened not long after his 2015 ‘Fight of the Year’ against Robbie Lawler at UFC 189. It is still one of the greatest fights of all time. MacDonald sliced through the lip of then-champ Lawler in the battle but lost the war in the fifth and final round, taken out with punches.

If you’re wondering what MacDonald is up to now, let’s just say his life looks totally different than it once did.

“It has been really good,” MacDonald said of retirement on Tim Welch’s Red Hawk recap. “Definitely different.”

MacDonald continued, “I’ve been doing mixed martial arts as a professional since I was a teenager, so transitioning to different things, it’s a bit different, but life is good. Super happy.”

When asked if he struggled with retirement at first, MacDonald said, “I think like identity for sure. “[When] I was a teenager when I like fell in love and like started competing as a professional, it just like became who I was.”

Rory MacDonald had his first MMA fight at the age of 16. By age 20, he had entered the UFC.