The always entertaining Matthew Semelsberger will no longer be plying his trade under the UFC banner.
Semelsberger debuted for the mixed martial arts leader in 2020 after a knockout under the Art of War Cage Fighting banner moved him to 6-2 as a professional.
“Semi the Jedi” went on to compete 11 times inside the Octagon, going 5-6. The 32-year-old delivered plenty of highlights, including thunderous knockouts of Jason Witt and Martin Sano Jr. that both came in under 20 seconds.
He’s struggled in recent years, though, having not had his hand raised since 2022. And four defeats on the bounce was all she wrote for Semelsberger’s time in the UFC, as he revealed in an Instagram post on Sunday.
Giving an honest assessment of his most recent years in the Octagon, “Semi the Jedi” admitted that he no longer deserves a place on the UFC roster.
“Officially released from the UFC. Par for the course, I don’t deserve to be there with the best of the best and ive shown that these last few fights in particular,” Semelsberger wrote. “Everyone hits plateaus & filters in life and in their careers. It’s happened many times in my life and I’ve tasted the pain of both discipline and regret in succeeding or failing to climb levels. The whole you either die a hero or live to become the enemy rings true to me because life is a serious of metaphorical deaths and rebirths.
“You can’t stay the same, you gotta grow and let go of your old self to evolve a stronger heart and spirit. Letting go has been difficult for me the last few years but ya know I’ve found that eventually, often late, God gets the truth through to me and I respond accordingly. Everything that’s happening is setting me up for greatness, I got faith on that. It is up to me to answer the call to adventure though. So I’ll BRB, gonna go die and be reborn from the ashes right quick.. Really think you’ll like the new guy 😉”
It remains to be seen what will come next in MMA for Semelsberger, whose last outing saw him knocked out by Charles Radtke at UFC Vegas 100.
But at the age of just 32, it would stand to reason that the Maryland native still has plenty of entertainment to give fans inside the cage.
