Aisling Daly doing an interview to promote her fight against Ericka Almeida back in UFC Fight Night 76. (Photo : YouTube/SportsJOE.ie)
Aisling Daly was a contestant on the twentieth installment of "The Ultimate Fighter" series wherein she vied for a chance to become the inaugural UFC women's strawweight champion. She was eliminated in the quarterfinal stage, but was still offered a contract in the UFC. After three fights in the promotion between 2014 and 2015, she has now announced her retirement from mixed martial arts at the age of just 29 years old.
Although Daly may not be as well known of a female fighter compared to the likes of Ronda Rousey or Holly Holm, she still had a storied career including stints in MMA promotions such as Bellator, Invicta, and as previously mentioned, the UFC. She has also been crowned champion of the 125-pound women's division of the North American Allied Fight Series. In total she participated in 22 professional bouts, amassing 16 wins and 6 losses.
Daly was considered to be one of the best female fighters to come out of Europe. However, she decided to close the book on her decade-long MMA career after medical tests reveled that she had an abnormality in her brain as a result of a previous hemorrhage in the area, according to MMA Fighting. In spite of the fact that she is devastated to end her career in this manner, she considers herself lucky that the discovery was made as early as possible.
"I got a brain scan that showed a small abnormality, and we can't exactly pinpoint when the incident actually happened or anything like that, it was just in between scans," Daly told the MMA Hour in an exclusive interview. She added that there was a possibility for her to continue competing, but chose not to do so because it might do her more harm than good in the long run.
Furthermore, Daly stated in the interview that she knew that early retirement was a large possibility in her line of work, so it reduced the sting of having to hang up her gloves at 29. She went on to say that she is proud that ended her career with a win in front of a home crowd in Dublin, Ireland back in UFC Fight Night 76.
Watch some of Daly's MMA highlights in the video below:
