2024 witnessed the retirement of many fighters including Matt Brown, Stipe Miocic, and Demetrious Johnson. While some of these retirements had the fighting community longing for more, others made us breathe a sigh of relief. And to make it easier to classify these retirements, a list of the top 5 retirements has been going viral on the internet.

Uncrowned has recently shared a list of 5 fighters on Instagram who retired in 2024. The post also ranked them from the happiest to the most depressing. ‘Mighty Mouse’ was ranked at the top, followed by Brown, then Jack Shore, and Carla Esparza secured the 4th place. And ‘The Silencer’ got the 5th place for the most profoundly depressing retirement. It was nothing short of a tearjerker when Miocic declared that he was done with the sport of mixed martial arts.

Soon, Johnson came across the post on Instagram. He took to the comments section to declare that there was no way he was coming back. He wrote, “Hahahha my black a– ain’t never coming back,” followed by a couple of laughing emojis. Of course, this wasn’t the first time the former ONE and UFC flyweight champion announced that he’d stay retired. He even said no to fighting Alexandre Pantoja for $2 million. No doubt, ‘Mighty Mouse’ was adamant about his decision. 

Soon after the list crossed the threshold of the social media platform, fight fans took over the comments section to reveal their thoughts. The MMA realm wasn’t really hyped up about Shore and Esparza’s retirement. But it was Stipe Miocic and Demetrious Johnson who took control of the fight fans’ hearts.

Netizens weigh in on Stipe Miocic and Demetrius Johnson’s retirement

Some fans seemed to believe that Miocic’s retirement wasn’t too depressing. He was already on a long hiatus before he faced his final foe Jon Jones. Reflecting on this, a fan wrote, “Not sure how [Stipe’s] retirement was depressing when he hadn’t fought in 3 years and was fighting for the belt at an age where most don’t fight at. I was happy to see him retire after one more big fight.” Another fan commented, “I didn’t find Stipes depressing tbh. I feel like we all pretty much knew this was coming tbh.” The comment went on, “I mean he was already basically retired.” Meanwhile, a handful of others were clearly upset with Miocic’s retirement. A comment read, “Seeing Stipe going out like that in person was a whole other type of sadness.”

On the other hand, many netizens were saddened by Demetrious Johnson‘s retirement. A fan wrote, “Djs hit the worst.’ Another fan claimed, “My initial thought was DJ. But looking through the slides it’s been a pretty big year.” But the fact that Johnson signed out on his own terms was worth celebrating. A fan weighed in on this and wrote, “DJ retired on his own terms, while on top, even the UFC had to put out a celebrating his career as soon as it happened. Champ s–t 🙌”

There were a few who compared Johnson’s retirement with that of Miocic. The former heavyweight fighter was already out of action for a long time. That was the reason why his retirement didn’t hurt the fans as much as Johnson’s retirement did. The comment read, “Im 100x more depressed about Mighty Mouse than Stipe, who rly retired years ago and just came back for a fat check.”

What are your thoughts on Stipe Miocic and Demetrious Johnson’s retirement plans? Do you wish to see them fight one more time? Let us know what you think in the comments down below.