Shortly after breaking the irons of his Ultimate Fighting Championship contract, “Cool
Hand” Luke
Sanders has called it a career.
On his Instagram on Wednesday, Sanders waved goodbye to the
sport after eight bouts in the UFC and his release in May. Once the Resurrection Fighting Alliance champ at 135
pounds, Sanders climbed aboard the UFC roster in 2016 and won a
trio of bouts, most significantly a knockout of former
pound-for-pound talent Renan
Barao.
Sanders wrote, “Cool Hand! Out! I’m officially retired after 8 UFC
[fights] two performance of the night awards multiple records held
in my own division. And whipping everybody’s ass that was put in
front of me. It’s been a great ride…thank you to all my coaches,
friends, Family, and fans All this was for y’all. Many blessing.
All the love guys.”
The Tennessee native started his career off at a perfect 11-0,
winning and defending the aforementioned RFA bantamweight throne
before signing with the company. His debut came against Maximo
Blanco, and he tapped his Venezuelan foe in impressive fashion
in under four minutes. Four of his five defeats inside the Octagon
did come via stoppage, and he did end his tenure with a pair of
losses to Nathan
Maness and Felipe
Dias Colares. The bantamweight
records in which he mentions in his Instagram post include
being among the top five for the shortest average fight time at
7:22, least bottom position time, second-lowest bottom position
percentage, and within the top five of the highest strikes landed
per minute average.