Jimmy Flick, who earned a contract on Dana White’s Contender Series in September and earning his first octagon victory to cap off 2020, announced his retirement Saturday at the Freestyle Cage Fighting event in Tulsa, Okla. Before getting his Contender Series shot, Flick captured the FCF flyweight title in February 2020 with a first-round submission win.
After an impressive showing on DWCS, “The Brick” delivered one of the best submissions of 2020 in the UFC with a flying triangle choke against Cody Durden at UFC Vegas 17.
Flick was scheduled to face Francisco Figueiredo—the brother of current UFC flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo—at the UFC’s event on May 8 before calling it a career instead.
In his retirement speech, which was captured by The Corner & The Casual on Facebook, Flick stated that he accomplished his goals in 2020 of not drinking soda, making $100,000 for the year, and making the UFC walk. After checking off those boxes, Flick said he has three new goals moving forward which all have nothing to do with the UFC, or fighting in general.
“I have three new goals in life: spend more time with my family, help my wife reach her goals, and, my third goal, is to finish the book I started over a year ago to tell my story, to tell my life, to tell everybody why I did this,” Flick said.
“A lot of people keep asking me where I see myself in 10 years. ‘Where do you see yourself in the UFC?’ To be honest, everybody, the UFC is not my dream no more. A lot of people won’t understand why. It’s hard to explain and it does bring tears to my eyes, but the UFC is not looking out for me. My wife is looking out for me, my kids are looking out for me and that’s what I want. I want to be their father. I want to go to work every day, come home and be with my family. I want to spend time with my little girls, I want to spend time with my wife.
“And i’ve found out I don’t want to be the next Conor McGregor, or the next Demetrious Johnson. So I step in this cage tonight and telling everybody that I’m retiring from mixed martial arts. I’m gonna pursue the other goals in life that make me more happy than fighting ever did.”
Following his highlight reel finish of Durden in his octagon debut, Flick told MMA Fighting that following losses to Ray Rodriguez and Chris Gutierrez—who both would end up earning UFC contracts—that he pondered walking away in 2019.
“Honestly, I thought maybe after the Chris Gutierrez fight and then the Ray Rodriguez fight, I’ve thought about hanging it up,” Flick said on What the Heck. “I have a really good job with a 401(k), benefits, I own two and a half acres. Me and my wife are very smart people and we’re doing really great for ourselves especially at a young age. I could have hung it up anytime, but my wife was motivating, my training partners, my coaches, especially when I brought Leo Perrucci in, it was really a game changer.
“I knew I had one more run coming up on 30 years old and my wife really motivated me. She’s been with me for 10 years. She’s been with the ups, she’s been with the downs, she’s seen the small paychecks and all the hard work, all the money I’m spending and time I’m spending, and not bringing much home and still working a full-time job. Now, everything’s changing and it’s changing for the right reasons and I understand it now and now I just want bigger and better things at the last little run I got here in the UFC.”
If this is truly the end for Flick, he finishes his career with a 16-5 record and a four-fight winning streak—all by submission. The 30-year-old made his pro debut in May 2010 at Bellator 20 and earned a unanimous decision win over Humberto DeLeon.
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