After suffering her fourth defeat in four UFC fights, this one in Belgrade this past weekend, Hailey Cowan has decided to call it a career.
Cowan announced the news shortly after her loss to Nina Nikolija Milosevic on the UFC Belgrade prelims, which saw her fall to body shots. Milosevic was awarded a Performance of the Night bonus for the victory.
A former LFA and Invicta FC standout, Cowan entered the UFC with a 7-2 record off a fight on the Contender Series in 2022, only to fall to Jamey-Lyn Horth, Nora Cornolle, Alice Pereira, and finally Milosevic.
Writing on social media to announce her retirement, Cowan started by saying “What a privilege it’s been to live a life of big dreams!”
Noting that she’d had both big failures and big successes, Cowan added “Today was a hard day- I had a great camp and an incredible week here in Serbia. I was ready, healthy and eager to put on a show. I fought well until I got hit with a body shot that shut the ole organs down. It is what it is. It sucks. But I made huge adjustments this camp, and I’m proud of that. Thanks to everyone who has stuck with me over the past few years. I genuinely love you all.”
She’d cite her faith, thank her training partners, and added in separate text that “Over the past few months, I’ve known I was getting close to the finish line. This obviously isn’t how I wanted to end this beautiful ride, but I’m healthy, happy and full of gratitude. I am forever thankful to the UFC for the opportunity. It wasn’t the UFC career I dreamed of, but life threw me some bombs and I always overcame.”
Hailey Cowan retires at age 34 with a 7-6 record overall in MMA.
