MMA: Waterson-Gomez announces retirement after loss on UFC 303

Michelle Waterson’s fight against Gillian Robertson was one to remember — but only because, she said afterward, it was her last.

“I’ve been contemplating this and I talked to my husband (Josh Gomez) — what am I if I’m not fighting?” Albuquerque’s Waterson-Gomez said, through tears, in the Octagon on Saturday after her lopsided loss to Robertson in Las Vegas, Nevada on UFC 303. “And he told me, ‘just because you’re not fighting in the Octagon doesn’t mean you stop fighting.’ That really helped me move on.

“I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it wasn’t for the UFC and all you fans continuing to push me,” she said, addressing the crowd at T-Mobile Arena. “Fighting runs through my veins. It’s made me who I am. When you fight, you chase greatness.”

Waterson-Gomez, 38, made her professional MMA debut in 2007.

A film depicting some of the best moments of her career was shown in the arena while Waterson-Gomez fought to control her emotions.

Otherwise, Saturday’s fight was one Waterson-Gomez might prefer to forget.

Richardson, in virtually complete control throughout the fight’s 15 minutes, is now 14-8. Waterson-Gomez (18-13) leaves the sport having lost five fights in a row.

After the two fought cautiously in standup for the first two minutes of the first round, Richardson took Waterson-Gomez down and kept her down for the remainder of the round.

In the second, Richardson had Waterson-Gomez back on the ground just 17 seconds into the round and remained in total control until the buzzer sounded.

Waterson-Gomez changed levels as the third round began, perhaps going for a takedown of her own, only to walk into an attempted guillotine choke. The Albuquerque fighter needed all her 18 years of MMA experience to stave off the submission attempt and make it to the final buzzer.

The judges scored the fight 30-27, 30-27 and 30-26. The ESPN commentators said they believed a score of 30-24 — 10-8 for each round — would not have been unreasonable.

Richardson clearly was the bigger, stronger fighter, having competed for the first six years of her MMA career at the flyweight limit of 125 pounds. Saturday’s fight was contested at strawweight, 115 pounds.

Waterson-Gomez has fought at strawweight throughout her UFC career but competed at atomweight, 105 pounds, before signing with the UFC in 2016.

She has been an immensely popular fighter in the UFC ranks, a fact reflected in a social media presence that includes 1.6 million Instagram followers.