A rough weekend stint in Hawaii for what should have been Ray Borg’s Bellator MMA debut has instead led to his retirement.
Borg (16-5), a former UFC title challenger, has had a series of well-documented struggles over the years, including misses at the scale, and son Anthony being born with hydrocephalus in 2018. “The Tazmexican Devil” still managed to work his way to a title shot in the UFC, however, coming up short against Demetrious Johnson after being submitted by the “Mighty Arm-Bar” (a flying arm-bar executed to perfection by “Mighty Mouse”) in 2017.
Paralleling Borg’s peaks, however, have been numerous valleys, with no fewer 17 fight cancellations spanning his pro career, which kicked off back in 2012. Compounding those issues were four official weight misses in the UFC, and several other fights scrapped as Borg struggled to make the flyweight and even bantamweight limit.
Ahead of Bellator 295 on Saturday, Borg was reportedly well above the flyweight limit for his promotional debut against Kyoji Horiguchi. After being unable to make a catchweight or even bantamweight bout, Bellator CEO Scott Coker opted to cut Borg (along with Keoni Diggs, who also missed weight for the card).
Dominance MMA, Borg’s management firm, also announced they had severed ties with the fighter, citing his lack of professionalism. That move came despite Borg having won his last three fights, all at bantamweight, without issue.
After being cut by both parties, Borg announced his retirement in a post to his Facebook page.
“Things did not go as planned this weekend and I will not be fighting. I made promise to myself that if another incident like this ever happened I would retire. So going forward I am officially out of the game and hanging it up,” Borg wrote. “I just want to formally apologize to those I have let down and thank those that have been by my side throughout these crazy years. I am on a different journey in life now and I appreciate and love you all for always being team Borg.”
If retirement sticks, Borg wraps up his career on a three-fight win streak with victories over Jesse Arnett, Cody Gibson, and Ricky Bandejas.
