Jillian DeCoursey was once arguably the best atomweight fighter in the world. She has officially retired since Thursday.
“Lionheart” announced the news on multiple social media platforms and posted an extensive, sincere message on Twitter/Xwhere she regularly interacts with fans.
I’ve rewritten this several times. I’ll try to keep it short, I don’t know if that will work.
For those who haven’t seen my post on other social media, I wanted to write a separate post here.
I started fighting simply because it looked fun. At that time I had no goals. As my amateur career progressed, I hoped to one day fight for Invicta Fights, the top promotion in women’s MMA, but that felt out of reach. I didn’t see myself at that level. But my career consisted of doing things I wasn’t supposed to do. I became the Invicta Atomicweight Champion, I only got to fight for two promotions my entire Pro career, and they are two of the best promotions, Invicta and CFFC MMA.
I have achieved more than I ever thought possible. And I did it without compromising my morals and beliefs. It always happened my way. But now it’s time for the next chapter in my life. So I am officially retired. I like fighting. I love teaching fighting. I like watching fights. I can still teach it and watch it and that’s good enough for me right now. At some point in my career, a lot of people here really started to get behind me. I didn’t know why and I still don’t know why, but it means the world to me. When I won that title, we won that title. Some people hate me and that’s okay too. We’re allowed to like and hate who we like and even if you hate me, thank you for watching me, even if you root against me.
This is not goodbye. This is the greatest sport in the world, and I can never get rid of it. I’m working on something that will allow me to stay involved in the sport for as long as I want. It will just take some time to put it together.
But I’ll still be here every day, still live tweeting about fights or talking about the sport. I’m still going to advocate for women in the sport, I’m still going to be available whenever any young fighter needs advice, and I’m still going to be outspoken, probably even more so now.
All I ever wanted was to be a good representative of the sport, be a good influence on young women in the sport and maybe leave the sport at least one percent better than when I started it. I hope I did that.
My career is what it is. Everyone can make up their own mind about what it is, but I’m damn proud of it. I made my career doing what I was told I couldn’t do.
I always say I don’t have fans, I have supporters, I have Team Lionheart. We did this together because so many of you spoke so loudly. You insisted that I take that title photo. That will always be appreciated and always remembered.
I’m not popular, I’m not famous, I go to the store and no one knows who I am. But I do have a small group of supporters who are also the best group of supporters anyone can have.
Thank you and from the bottom of my heart I love you all.
DeCoursey, 41, is from New York and got her start in MMA as a professional in 2017. Despite being a latecomer when it came to the transition to fighting professional (she debuted as an amateur several years earlier), the feisty 105lb’er won her first two fights, both under the Invicta FC banner, before dropping two more.
She then moved to Cage Fury FC, a frequent feeder promotion for the UFC, won one fight and then won another for Invicta before challenging future UFC fighter Elise Reed for the CFFC strawweight title.
If she fell short, DeCoursey would return to Invicta, returning to atomweight and winning her next fight, before claiming the Invicta FC atomweight championship in 2022 with a submission victory over Jessica Delboni.
Thanks to her willingness to interact with fans online and her fun personality, DeCoursey became a fan favorite, which didn’t seem to change much after she lost her atomweight belt to Rayanne dos Santos the following year.
DeCoursey also won several titles as an amateur.
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