UFC Vet Mark Bocek announces retirement.

[The Great Cochrane]

Mark Bocek has officially joined amongst the ranks of Randy Couture, Chuck Liddell, Chris Lytle, and many others, as he just recently took to his twitter account this past Tuesday to officially announce his retirement from the sport.

Bocek last defeated Mike de la Torre by Split Decision back at The Ultimate Fighter Nations Finale back in April 2014, prior to that he'd only fought a total of 3 times within the elapsing two years. He leaves the octagon with a compiled record of 8-5

Bocek officially posted on his twitter account:

I'm retiring from pro mma. I would like to thank everyone who has helped me and supported me throughout this journey. Onto the next chapter.

Mark Bocek is credited for being the first Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt on Canadian soil while also owning a black belt in Kempo Karate. Bocek first started fighting professionally in 2004 and racked up three first round finishes with 3 of those being via submission.

Bocek entered the UFC in July 2007 where he was unsuccessful against future Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar losing via first round TKO. He rebounded by beating Doug Evans in December but lost in his next fight to Ultimate Fighter winner Mac Danzig.

A three fight win streak followed where Bocek won all of his fights by rear naked choke submission and racked up his first submission of the night bonus in the process. He was then matched up against lightweight standout Jim Miller who handed Bocek his third career loss at UFC 111.

His next fight was quite arguably the most impressive performance of his career where he submitted notable grappler Dustin Hazelette in Hazelette's 155 debut with a mounted triangle choke which earned Bocek his second submission of the night bonus.

Next Bocek faced another future lightweight champion and WEC export Benson Henderson who was making his debut in the octagon in front of Bocek's hometown of Toronto at UFC 129. Bocek put up an impressive effort but ultimately lost a unanimous decision to the future champ in front of 55,000 plus fans.

Bocek got one back in front of his home town defeating Nik Lentz by unanimous decision and giving the carny his first loss in 8 fights and then also ground out a decision win over fellow Canadian John Alessio before putting on a lack luster performance against top contender Rafael dos Anjos. Prior to his next and last fight against Mike de la Torre which he won via Split Decision, he was absent from MMA competition for almost one year and a half years.

All the power to you Bocek, good luck with all your future endeavours.

Author: Alex Cochrane
Cited source: The Canadian Press/TSN.com

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I trained under Bocek for a few months and I can truly say he's probably one of the best grapplers I've ever done so with, although I'm not a fan of it myself.

I can also see why he retired from competition, his style didn't offer much outside the ground game and with as many fighters being trained the way they are today he probably knew he wasn't gonna be able to measure up.

Regardless, he certainly was quite the stepping stone for future top contenders.

 

[Swinny]

Well he retired on a win with a decent record, so good for him. Gotta say though, can't say I can think of one memorable Mark Bocek fight. Although I do remember him doing a bit better than expected against Benson.

 

[The Great Cochrane]

Personally, having trained with him then also having watched him fight, I can simply say the old saying; "Those who can do, and those who can't teach" definitely applies to Bocek. He's easily the best grappler in all of Canada but as far as his competition with all the up and comers in today's game he certainly wouldn't be able to hold his own.

I also forgot to include that at one time he also stopped doing jiu jitsu for a while and focused strictly on his wrestling; he spent a year on the wrestling team at Brock University and won a national championship. It's never been noted, I just know because I talked to him a couple times about it. I don't train at Tapout anymore but my friend does and is really close to Bocek.

I imagine anybody who does enters MMA from Tapout with a jiu jitsu pedigree under Mark Bocek will be quite a fit on the ground. But luckily I got an inside source so it all works out for me

 

[Swinny]

I believe he was also the guy who taught Dana and the Fertitias jiu-jitsu. That must have been an interesting job.

 

[The Great Cochrane]

Here's another interesting story.

Bocek was invited to Dan Henderson's camp for his fight at UFC 100 against Michael Bisping, and at the time for his striking, Hendo was also using the late Shawn Tompkins for his striking coach heading into that fight. Now, with all the politics that go down in Southern Ontario, its fair to say that Bocek despised Tompkins at the time and he's also very introverted and doesn't like being outside his home. So when he arrived all the way from Toronto to Las Vegas, he spotted Tompkins and said "You don't bring me all the way from my home for me to train with Shawn Tompkins, I won't be back."

Certainly enough, they never trained together again.