Gillian Robertson fell short in her bid for UFC gold this past Saturday, and now her head coach has retired from cornering.
Din Thomas, a renowned MMA coach and UFC on Paramount+ analyst, appeared on the UFC 330 post-fight show after Robertson was defeated by women’s strawweight champion Mackenzie Dern. Thomas announced that his time cornering athletes is over (via MMAFighting).
“For my announcement — I do have an announcement for you guys — I told myself I would continue to do this until I took Gillian as far as she could go; I think that might be as far as she can go, and I am officially retiring from cornering fighters tonight. I’m doing the Matt Serra: I’m no longer cornering fighters,” Thomas said.
Thomas would’ve been completely done sooner, but he wanted to coach Robertson for the biggest bout of her prizefighting career.
“It’s just, I told myself that I would do this with her, I would see her journey out, and take her as far as I think she can go. And this might be as far as she can go,” Thomas said. “Listen, I’m the host of Deep Waters now [laughs]. …
While Thomas won’t be giving corner advice to anyone moving forward, he still plans on mentoring some fighters.
“I’ll still work with guys; it’s just a matter of going down that road with cornering. It’s a lot of work. It’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of stress. It’s a lot of work; you’ve got to be there all week.”
Some have criticized Thomas for the timing of his retirement announcement, and have even scolded him for seemingly saying that Robertson has peaked. Even UFC play-by-play ace Jon Anik took issue with the way Thomas handled his exit from cornering.
Do you think Din Thomas made a mistake announcing his retirement right after Gillian Robertson’s loss, or do you not have an issue with it? Sound off in the comments below.
This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM
