Marlon
Moraes is hanging up the four-ounce gloves following a
difficult stretch in which he lost his last four fights by knockout
or technical knockout.
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The former World Series of Fighting champion and UFC title
challenger announced his retirement through a statement released by
his manager, Ali Abdelaziz.
“I want to thank everyone – Sean Shelby, Dana White and the UFC for
giving me so many opportunities,” Moraes wrote. “I want to thank my
family, my coaches, my manager, everybody who has been around and
been part of my career. I’m still gonna be around the sport helping
young guys and helping my friends. I also want to say thank you to
Mark Henry, Ricardo
Almeida, Frankie
Edgar and Anderson França.”
Moraes last appeared at UFC Fight Night 203, where he suffered a
first-round KO defeat to Yadong Song
on March 12. Prior to that, the 33-year-old American Top Team
representative had suffered successive TKO losses at the hands of
Merab
Dvalishvili, Rob Font and
Corey Sandhagen.
Moraes rose to prominence in WSOF, claiming the promotion’s
135-pound belt with a five-round decision win against Josh
Rettinghouse on March 29, 2014. He posted an 11-0 record in the
promotion, a mark that included five successful title defenses.
“Magic” joined the UFC in 2017 and was victorious in four of his
first five appearances, earning wins over the likes of Aljamain
Sterling, John Dodson,
Raphael
Assuncao and Jimmie
Rivera. He received a shot at bantamweight gold at UFC 238,
where he fell to Henry
Cejudo via third-round TKO. That was part of a stretch in which
Moraes went 1-5 to end his UFC career, although his lone victory
during that stretch notably came against ex-featherweight king
Jose
Aldo.
Moraes exits the sport with a 23-10-1 career record.