Borg walks back retirement: My depression 'got the best of me'

Former UFC title challenger Ray Borg won't be hanging up his gloves after all.

The 27-year-old appeared to announce his retirement on Instagram last week, less than a month after his UFC release. However, Borg deleted his statement soon after posting it.

"... My depression and stress got the best of me, and I was really in it that day," Borg told Sherdog's Jason Burgos. "I was just done. I just didn't really want much more of the sport. I have a family. I have a wife, I have a son, and the first thing I thought to myself was, 'I let myself get cut from the UFC, and I've gotta put food on the table. I've gotta provide, I've gotta keep the lights on. I think the best thing to do for myself and my family is to straight up get a nine-to-five (job).'"

A week later, Borg said he's decided not to retire after receiving messages from kids he used to coach at Fit Nhb in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and following a conversation with his wife.

"I had some kids message me saying, 'Hey, coach, you can't retire. You taught me to be tougher than that. You're too young. You have too much skills. You can't retire. It's too soon for you. You're only 27,'" Borg said.

"(My wife) let me know that I owe it to my son," he continued. "I can't have my son look at me in 10 years and tell me, 'Dad, why'd you quit?'

"I'm one of the most talented guys in the world, I feel. I feel like on a good day I'm unbeatable. I just couldn't do it. I owe it to too many people to get myself out of this gutter and to continue with trying to make it."

Borg signed with the UFC in 2014 at the age of 20, making it to a flyweight title fight against Demetrious Johnson three years later. Since then, though, "The Tazmexican Devil" has hit a rough patch, missing weight multiple times (including for a bantamweight bout) and withdrawing from several fights due to personal reasons. Borg's son was born in 2018 with the brain condition hydrocephalus and has undergone a number of surgeries.

Borg most recently lost a decision to Ricky Simon in May, dropping to 2-2 over his past four contests.