The MMA world received a blow to the gut this past week, as Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipović and Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson announced they were hanging up their gloves.

Jackson, having recently been cast as B.A. Baracus in the new “A-Team” remake film, is looking for greener pastures, as well as a few more zeroes on his paycheck, on the big screen rather than in the ring.

“I’m hanging it up,” Jackson wrote in his blog. “I’ve been getting negative reviews from the dumba– fans that don’t pay my bills or put my kids though college.”

Jackson, who was known for his powerful body slams and power bombs, was 30-7 all-time and beat former UFC Light Heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell in 2007 for his own Light Heavyweight championship.

Filipović’s retirement came as no surprise; he told reporters on Saturday that his fight with up and coming UFC heavyweight Junior Dos Santos was probably his final professional MMA bout.

“Maybe the ones who have said that I’m done are right,”  he said.  “Obviously, I can’t break my mental block in the Octagon. I have twenty years of training like a spartan behind me. It has caught up with me, my body is broken down. I’ve been worn out.”

Filipović had a career that most fighters would envy; he had a left high kick that opponents shuddered to think about, he won the Pride 2006 Open Weight Grand Prix, and, with a 35-7 record, was a UFC regular beginning in 2007.

Filipović‘s manager, Zvonimir Lucic, released all Team Cro Cop members from their respective duties, ending an era spanning 15 years.

Both fighters will be missed, but hey, NFL QB Brett Favre retired 20 different times. I’m sure we haven’t seen the last of these guys.

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