Former UFC Heavyweight Challenger Jeff Monson has finally hung his gloves after more than 100 fights during an almost 30-year career.
The 54-year-old has had an incredible run since 1997 with 93 professional MMA periods and countless other fights in other disciplines. He fought most famous for heavyweight gold against Tim Sylvia on UFC 65 and went all five rounds in a heavy title effort.
Nowadays the resident of Minnesota moved to Russia, where he rose again after the pandemic to compete in a number of different sports. But now, when he approaches the mid -fifties, he has decided to hang the gloves forever.
Jeff Monson withdraws from MMA at the age of 54
After almost three decades, the renowned Grappler and MMA veteran Jeff Monson decided to hang his gloves after participating in a regional Russian show. He fought in Yuri Gagarin Sports Palace in Yevpatoria City to launch the Black Sea Cup, according to Russian media.
His opponent for the night was a bald knuckle boxer and 0-2 MMA Fighter Maxim Shcherbakov. The Russian is something of a veteran in itself at the age of 35, but was still Monson's junior for almost 20 years when they fought it in a ring.
The fight seemed to be a filthy affair of online available images and exact rules are unclear. Monson managed to get a number of Takedowns and control position in a number of highlights, but the fight was eventually ruled.
After the event, the American received a belt presented by the total Kombat Federation of the world when he gave an interview after the fight in apparently perfect Russian without a touch of English.
Jeff Monson had a bizarre travelman career
Monson's Run brought him all over the world and saw him one of the best in the world. He had an early career that drove around America that picked up almost as much as victories, before he went on a Monster 16-Fight winning streak that led him to a UFC title shot.
He was defeated in five rounds by Tim Sylvia in a fight that he later claimed to 'chase him', but the big fights were not over yet. He went back to the regional scene and defeated Roy Nelson before returning to the big show at Strike Force, where he met a young Daniel Cormier in June 2011.
Only a few months after that defeat due to the unbeaten Olympian, he was in Moscow to record one of the greats of the sport of all time. He took Fedor Emelianenko the distance, but also lost it before he started fighting another good and a half decade.
Since then he has moved controversially to Russia, where he is involved in politics. He surrendered his American passport in 2023 and began to give up the trial of his American citizenship.