UFC's Zabit Magomedsharipov officially retires from MMA after 2.5-year hiatus

Zabit Magomedsharipov was once one of the fastest-rising stars in the UFC, but after a nearly three-year hiatus, he informed the promotion that he's officially retired from mixed martial arts, MMA Fighting reported Wednesday.

Magomedsharipov, 31, was undefeated in six UFC fights and was as high as No. 3 in the featherweight rankings before he was removed due to inactivity. His last bout occurred in November 2019 when he earned a unanimous-decision victory over Calvin Kattar, who is currently the UFC's No. 4 featherweight. Nearly a year later, Magomedsharipov was scheduled to fight Yair Rodriguez in August 2020, but the bout was canceled due to an injury for Rodriguez.

In an Instagram post in April, Magomedsharipov suggested that he's considering a career in medicine. MMA journalist Ariel Helwani said that religion may have contributed to Magomedsharipov stepping away from fighting.

"He just disappeared," Helwani said in April. "From what I was told, it sounds he had like, almost like this moral religious dilemma that he was dealing with. He's very religious, and I think he reached a point where he just didn't want to do it anymore."

The Russian fighter walks away from the sport with an 18-1 record as a professional with his only loss coming in 2013, more than four years before he made his UFC debut.