Ian McCall has been through his fair share of troubles, but he says if he breaks again, he's done.
The top-10 Flyweight McCall gave current champion Demetrious "Mighty Mouse' Johnson his closest flyweight contest in the UFC, going to a draw with him during the UFC Flyweight Title tournament in 2012. Since then, McCall has won only twice, and has been huge gaps of time from the cage during injury. According to McCall during an interview with Bloody Elbow, "Uncle Creepy" said he was almost ready to call it quits.
"I was going to retire. I had given up probably four months ago. I was over it. I was like okay I'm done. This isn't working," McCall said. "Even though I'm training my arm's not working. It still gives me a lot of problems but I was already used to fighting one handed because my hand wasn't working. So now I just have an arm that doesn't work."
McCall says that even though he's feeling healthy right now, he's not out of the clear. He made a commitment to his family that if things go south again, he'll leave MMA behind.
"I have to personally take a very intelligent approach to it because I can't break. If I break again I quit. I promised my daughter. I promised my family. I've had seven parts of my body worked on, surgically, in the last three years. And I tore my hip and my groin and I popped my knee, there's a lot of stuff. Those are things I have to take in to consideration," McCall said.
McCall will take on Justin Scoggins at UFC 201 on July 31.
By Sean Ross Sapp