A four-fight skid that nearly ended his UFC career also brought clarity to Dan Hardy.

Now back on the winning track, the British welterweight is planning to retire next year, if all goes well.

"I'm ready for a new challenge, I'll be honest," Hardy said. "There are a lot of things about this sport that I love, and a lot of things about this sport that I don't like at all."

Hardy declined to elaborate on his reasons for leaving and said he'll do so when he's closer to retirement.

"Martial arts for me has always been a tool to understand myself a little more, and it's getting to the stage where it's run its course now," he offered. "The structure the sport has taken on is taking away from that for me, and I think I'm best served to be somewhere else in the future."

For now, Hardy (25-10 MMA, 6-4 UFC) is focused on a fight with Matt Brown (16-11 MMA, 9-4 UFC) at UFC on FOX 7, which takes place April 20 at HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

"Whatever Matt can bring, I can bring it back on him tenfold and make it really rough for him," Hardy said.

The fight is the first of what Hardy hopes is a five-fight win streak ending with a defense of the UFC welterweight title, which is currently held by the man who first halted his octagon win streak, Georges St-Pierre.

Hardy belted out four straight wins before getting a shot at the French-Canadian champ at UFC 111. In a one-sided fight, St-Pierre won via unanimous decision.

Subsequent losses to Carlos Condit, Anthony Johnson and Chris Lytle prompted many fans to wonder whether Hardy would be released from his contract, but UFC executive Lorenzo Fertitta said the fighter's job was safe.

Hardy then rebounded with a first-round KO of Duane Ludwig, which earned him a $70,000 performance bonus, and outpointed Amir Sadollah in his most recent outing.

Seizing upon current momentum is Hardy's chief goal.

"As of right now, I just need to embrace that instinctual inner-reptile and have a run at the belt again," he said. "I'm excited about this year because my potential is sky-high, and it's completely open for me to do whatever I like with it. I'm very determined to make this a big year for me and step away from the top of the sport and do something else for a while."

Of the many things he plans to do after hanging up his gloves, Hardy plans to get a doctorate in philosophy and backpack around South America, where he visited this past summer and participated in a life-changing ayahuasca retreat.

"I'll never be away from the gym for too long," he said. "I couldn't walk away from it entirely. I just think there's a time to review where you're at and see what you want to do with the rest of your life, and I think in that two years when I was losing, I had a lot of time to do that, and I made plans for the future that I was excited about. Now, I've got a second chance at my UFC career, and I'm going to run at it and see what happens after it."

http://www.mmajunkie.com/news/2013/02/ufc-on-fox-7s-dan-hardy-says-retirement-on-the-horizon

Everybody wants to see former Strikeforce champions Ronda Rousey and Cris “Cyborg” Santos fight, but as the days dwindle on, it looks less and less likely that it’s ever going to happen.

Things have devolved to the point that UFC Hall of Famer and current Cyborg manager Tito Ortiz on Friday night told Inside MMA that his client has asked to be released from her contract.

Cyborg was one of the fighters under contract with Zuffa, LLC when the UFC assimilated the Strikeforce roster. Zuffa, LLC is the parent company of both promotions, so Cyborg’s contract carried over to the UFC.

The problem is, Cyborg was the 145-pound champion and often struggled to make weight in that division. Rousey is the UFC’s first 135-pound women’s champion and neither she nor the UFC appear to want her to fight outside of that class anytime soon.

Cyborg, according to Ortiz, is willing to do the fight, but only at a catchweight of 140 pounds.

The UFC seems unwilling to do that, at least not yet. Cyborg is unhappy with the UFC’s alternative offer, which Ortiz said includes the possibility of her remaining under contract, but then fighting for Invicta FC, the burgeoning all-women’s mixed martial arts promotion.

“UFC wanted to sign a huge deal with Cris Cyborg, but they wanted to stick her over in Invicta. It didn’t make sense to me,” said Ortiz on Inside MMA.

“I talked to Cyborg time and time again, asked her and asked her. She said I would love to do a three-fight deal; fourth fight would be against Ronda. Let’s get it done at 140, not be a fight for the 135-pound championship,” he continued.

“For her to get down to 135 pounds is physically impossible, for a woman. For a man it’s different because we have more water weight to take off. For Cris Cyborg to get down to that weight, she’s going to be three to four percent bodyfat.

“I’ve talked to her. She wants to start a family later on; she wants to have kids. Family is what it’s truly about.”

With that in mind, Cyborg just doesn’t want to try and go any lower than 140 pounds, and doesn’t really appreciate the alternatives, since the UFC has no intention of adding a women’s 145-pound division to its offerings any time in the near future.

If the UFC and Rousey aren’t willing to make the deal at 140 pounds, Cyborg is content to cut ties and take her chances elsewhere.

“Right now we’re actually waiting for the UFC to release her,” said Ortiz. “We asked for them to release her. (UFC president Dana White) actually talked to me yesterday. They gave me an offer. I went to Cyborg, she says she doesn’t want to do it, and we just asked for a release.

“If they’re not having a 145-pound weight class, what else can they do? As of now, she’s gonna be released, and maybe we’ll go looking somewhere else.”

http://www.mmaweekly.com/cris-cyborg-asks-for-release-from-ufc-contract

Maybe of this juice head stopped sticking herself, or stopped using stanazol and reduced her weight that she uses in the gym, making 135 wouldn't be a problem what so ever