Uncle Creepy is a UFC fighter no more. The popular flyweight, who has struggled with health issues in recent years, told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour that he had asked for his release, and been granted it by the promotion. That makes McCall one of the hottest free agents on the market, though he says he’s holding out for a considerable payday.
“I’m a free agent now. If I’m gonna fight, I want to fight for at least $100,000 — 50 and 50 is fine” McCall told Helwani. There are a number of promotions who might bite at such a deal, including Japan’s RIZIN FF, fellow Asian MMA promotion ONE Championship, and potentially others. Bellator MMA, the UFC’s biggest competitor at the moment, seems uninterested in doing much with the 125lb division for men — though there is always the possibility that McCall moves up to bantamweight.
RIZIN in particular was one promotion highlighted by McCall, who says he may call it a career if the money isn’t right.
Ultimately, however, he’d like to wind up back with the UFC some day.
“I just figure I’ll go out, cause some trouble, travel the world, make some money and see if I can create some want,” he stated on The MMA Hour. “Some need from the fans, like ‘You need to re-sign this guy, you need to pay him the money that he wants’ and then we’ll go from there.”
McCall (13–5–1), who fought in two memorable bouts against Demetrious Johnson in the early days of the UFC flyweight division, has not fought since 2015. At UFC 183, he dropped a decision loss to John Lineker; prior to that he had been on a two-fight winning streak. However since 2015, not one, not two, but four fights fell through for McCall due to health issues. Two of those were his own, while two others fell through due to health issues suffered by opponents. As a result, McCall quickly earned a reputation as one of the most unluckiest fighters around with fans.
It will be interesting to see where the always entertaining Uncle Creepy goes from here.
