Brian Ebersole retires following UFC Fight Night 68

After 15 years and 68 professional fights, Brian Ebersole is calling it a career.

The 34-year-old welterweight made the difficult decision following his loss to Omari Akhmedov at UFC Fight Night 68 on Saturday night, where he had to quit on his stool between the first and second round after suffering a knee injury.

"The highlight of my career was probably the fact I cheated the system,” Ebersole said, according to UFC.com. "I was a decent wrestler, but I never had the accolades of some of these guys like (Daniel) Cormier and (Josh) Koscheck. It was good to come in here and have such a successful MMA career and to get through as many fights as I did, especially early on, without getting beat up.

"We see it now, when guys have two or three fights and that's enough. We see guys have one fight and they don't come back. There are guys who see who they're fighting on amateur night and don't show up to the fight. So to be able to push through and fight karate guys, fight boxers, fight big, scary heavyweights, and actually get through that and get to where it turned into an art, instead of a fight, really capped my career off."

Godspeed, Mr. Ebersole, your longevity, durability, and fantastically crafted chest hair was an inspiration to us all.