BJ Penn & Cro Cop retire after UFC 137 loses

Penn, a former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion, had his left eye swollen badly by the onslaught and afterward, he said he is hanging it up.

“I want to perform at the top level,” Penn said. “I’ve got a daughter and another on the way. I don’t want to go home looking like this.”

Filipovic, meanwhile, had his legendary career came to an end with him flat on his back and with Nelson firing big shots at him. Referee Steve Mazzagatti had finally seen enough as Nelson was battering Filipovic and halted it at 1:30 of the third.

Filipovic, who announced his retirement in the cage while doing a post-fight interview with UFC analyst Joe Rogan, had a moment of glory in the second. He took a big shot from Nelson, but reeled off a flurry of punches, landing to the head and body and bloodying Nelson’s face.

But Filipovic, the one-time PRIDE legend, didn’t have the stamina to continue that pace. Nelson knocked him down in the third with a right-left-right combination and then finished him off.

“The UFC has been so good to me over the years and it is hard to leave this company and this sport,” he said. “Even though I didn’t do as well in the UFC as the rest of my career, I feel like I did everything that I could to have an overall successful career.”