Former pound-for-pound great, WEC champ Miguel Torres announces MMA retirement

After a career that stretched more than 15 years, former WEC champion and onetime pound-for-pound great Miguel Torres has announced his retirement from MMA.

The 36-year-old fighter, based just outside Chicago in Northwest Indiana, posted on his Facebook account that the rigors of running a business – his MMA academy in East Chicago, Ind. – along with family obligations and training for fights were too much combined to allow him to compete the way he once did.

Torres (44-9) leaves the sport on a winning note after a submission win this past September over Lloyd Carter for a United Combat League show in the venue he became a local legend in, the Hammond (Ind.) Civic Center. Torres, a jiu-jitsu black belt under Carlson Gracie, finished his career with 34 stoppages in his 44 wins, including 25 submissions.

“As i sit here on the mat in my academy contemplating my life and all of the possibilities that can manifest from just mere choice, my heart feels too overburdened and overwhelmed to be able to seriously train for another fight,” Torres posted on Facebook. “Wearing so many hats does not afford me the time to seriously do what is in my heart to do. When this journey started it was to make a name for myself, show everyone that i was not an ordinary man, to show all the little guys size doesn’t matter, to make my family proud of all their sacrifices, so my daughter would know her daddy did something special for her, and now things are different. Doesn’t feel like my effort is for the love of the fight or competition anymore its just about a paycheck to buy unneeded things and taxes to a corrupt system. Have been bouncing back and forth from injuries the last 20 years, always training through the pain and fighting to build my brand and make my mark in the world. Any of my training partners, promoters, or any promotion i fought for was always aware of these things but the show still went on. Can no longer do it the way i have been. To not do it the right way or to fight small battles in the middle of training camps leads to ugly situations in the cage. It breaks my heart to write this but i officially announce my retirement from mixed martial arts.”

Torres’ MMA career started at an almost unfathomable 37-1 – and those were the fights that had records kept. Torres always estimated that he had at least another dozen wins in unsanctioned fights in his home area.

Torres’ first 30 fights came in his home state of Indiana, many at the local legendary venue Hammond Civic Center for promotions like Ironheart Crown and Total Combat Challenge.

Torres first loss came after a 20-0 start, and it came with a couple fairly big asterisks attached to it. He hadn’t fought in 18 months and was making his return after ACL surgery. A fight-week opponent change left him taking on 145-pounder Ryan Ackerman instead of the 132-pounder he was supposed to meet. The size difference and the cage rust combined for a decision loss. But two years later, Torres got his revenge and submitted Ackerman in the first round.

When the WEC called for Torres, he had a 32-1 record. He tapped out Jeff Bedard in his promotional debut, then submitted Chase Beebe to win the bantamweight title at WEC 32 in February 2008. He had another two title defenses that year with stoppages of Yoshiro Maeda and Manny Tapia.

In April 2009, Torres got what almost certainly was the toughest test of his career to that point when he outpointed Takeya Mizugaki at WEC 40 in Chicago to defend his title. The back-and-forth war became one of the now-defunct promotion’s most legendary fights.

But in his next fight, Torres suffered a major upset when, as a 4-1 favorite, and in the midst of discussion about him being considered a candidate for world’s best pound-for-pound fighter – much the same way flyweight Demetrious Johnson is considered now. Brian Bowles became the first to stop Torres when he knocked him out in the first round at WEC 42.

The next year, when Torres tried to rebound, Joseph Benavidez stunned him and choked him out in the second round at WEC 47. Suddenly, Torres’ aura of invincibility was gone.

He won three of his next four, including two of his first three in the UFC. The only loss in that stretch came to Johnson by unanimous decision in a close fight. But Torres also fell on some hard times. In December 2011, Dana White released Torres from the roster after he reposted a joke about rape from the TV series “Workaholics” on his Twitter page. Three weeks later, though, Torres was welcomed back after, White said, he apologized and reached out to women’s advocacy and victims groups for education.

But in his next fight, Torres was knocked out by Michael McDonald in the first round at UFC 145 and not long after he was released by the UFC.

Torres signed with the upstart WSOF and competed at its first show. But he dropped a split decision to eventual champ Marlon Moraes. And in his next bout, nearly a year later, he was submitted by Pablo Alfonso in the first round in a fight that saw him move to featherweight.

After those losses, Torres won four of his final six, all for regional promotions. His one shot to attempt to get back to the higher levels of competition came against Desmond Green at Titan FC 31 in October 2014, but he was knocked out in 46 seconds.

Torres still trains hundreds of students at his martial arts school in Hammond. But even though it appears he’ll be around the sport he loves, he said he’ll miss the competition part of it.

“When i close my eyes at night and i breathe deep, can still hear the roar of the crowd, the need to satisfy their lust for danger and excitement, it keeps me up at night it’s so loud,” Torres posted. “Goodbye my love, thank you for the memories it was something else.”