Ian Freeman speaks on his retirement

You may have heard about my retirement from fighting ... but not the sport.

I think its best I concentrate on my IFL career as a UK coach and get the best team the UK can give, but most of all concentrate on my TV career. My movie
Sucker Punch is out this year where I play joint lead role and I am hoping to get extra work off the back of that.



Cage Rage have given me a great job as co-presenter on their show and I work as MC on most of the fight events too.

I just feel if I keep fighting I am never gonna quit. All that happens then is you become a 'has been.' I know there will always be better fighters out
there in the future, but for now, no one can take away what I have achieved in my career ... win or lose I've fought the best and given it my best shot.
I used to train twice a day, six days a week for a fight and now, I have far too many commitments to take time off to train full time for a fight.

You know how it is ... a true fighter never retires. They weigh up the pro's and the con's and if the con's are in the favour, they retire. If the pro's
are in their favour they fight.

At the moment there are too many con's in my fighting career right now. For instance, everyone wants me to defend my Cage Rage British title. ... against
who I ask. There's no one to fight that will increase my profile. If I win they say I beat a lesser standard than myself, if I lose then they say I'm washed
up.

Ok, so fight for the world title, against a top name. Cool thats great, but they won't pay me what I deserve in purse money. And believe me its not a fortune,
but they have a budget to keep and I respect that. So, as you can see, both have very big con's to them.

And on top of all that I have a lot of TV work and public appearances that stop me from training full time.

Who knows one day I may be offered a lot of money and that would bring me out of retirement. At my age I have only money to drive me to fight not opponents.
If I were a lot younger then ok, but not now, I have to channel my skills into other work. ... like TV.

Thanks for all your support,

Ian 'The Machine' Freeman
2 x British Heavyweight Champion
British light-heavyweight Champion
Intercontinental Champion
Pancrase Superbout Champion
FNC 2 x World champion
Hook n Shoot Super Heavyweight World Champion
6 x UFC Veteran.

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