At UFC 303, "The Karate Hottie" officially signaled the end of her 17-year career when she announced her retirement following a loss to Gillian Robertson. During Waterson-Gomez's post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, the promotion played a heartwarming video on the T-Mobile Arena screens recapping some of her best moments inside the cage.
In an emotional conversation, Waterson-Gomez appeared on The MMA Hour afterward to talk about what led her to make the decision to hang up the gloves for good.
"I've been fighting for over 17 years," Waterson-Gomez said. "My husband sacrificed a lot in order for me to fight. He sacrificed his own fighting career. As long as my daughter's been born, she's been a gym kid. You take her to the gym, she was in the car seat, she's had to sacrifice birthdays, events, change around things on her end so mommy can train, so mommy can fight. She's getting older, and I want to be in her corner. I want to be in my husband's corner.
There are a lot of things that he's doing right now that I want to be a part of.
"I'm not getting any younger. I think that you just kind of have to recognize things for what they are, and as a fighter and a competitor, if I could, I would stay in chasing the wins, chasing that incredible high that you get when you win, chasing the gold. But I think I just had to recognize where I was at in my MMA career, and the amount of time and sacrifice I was putting into that could be put into a different direction, where I can get a win in different areas of life.
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