He’s back! Missing ‘much-ducked’ UFC submission savant wants two more fights, then retire from the sport

SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA - JULY 13: Ryan Hall celebrates after his victory over Darren Elkins in their featherweight bout during the UFC Fight Night event at Golden 1 Center on July 13, 2019 in Sacramento, California. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images) | Zuffa LLC via Getty Images “The Wizard” is planning a comeback.

class="has-text-align-none">It has been four years and five months since Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) submission ace Ryan Hall — a.k.a. the “master of the 50/50” — has competed inside the Octagon, and for the most part, he has been M.I.A.

class="has-text-align-none">Hall has been mentioned by UFC fighters Cory Sandhagen and Chase Hooper, who have gone to train with him over the last couple of years, but other than that, there has been basically nothing.

class="has-text-align-none">However, during a rare podcast appearance with Matt Serra, the unique grappler gave an update on where he has been and revealed that he is planning a comeback.

class="has-text-align-none">“It’s been a while, man,” Hall said. “I hadn’t really trained in almost three years. I’m still good, but not sharp, if that makes sense. I’m working to get back to it. I had 23 surgeries in three years — that wasn’t great, and some of them were pretty major. And some of them the doctors goofed up, which they had to do again.”

class="has-text-align-none">“I want to come back to do well, but it’s also for my son,” Hall continued. “He’s only seven, and he’s spent most of his life seeing his dad be a mess. I want to come back, win, lose, or draw, and show him something a little bit different. I know I have enough left for one or two more fights at a very high level. It’s just whether or not we get the opportunity because you never know where life will take you.”

class="has-text-align-none">Hall only fought six times inside UFC, but he had plenty of success. He won The Ultimate Fighter, became the first fighter in history to submitB.J. Penn, and defeated former title challenger Gray Maynard.

class="has-text-align-none">The submission savant has always blamed his inactivity on his division ducking him.

class="has-text-align-none">“The timing of the UFC was tough,” Hall said. “I got dodged for a lot of years and got ducked by a lot of the guys in the rankings when I got there.”

class="has-text-align-none">In a previous interview in 2020, Hall named ranked fighters such as Josh Emmett, Renato Moicano and Calvin Kattar as opponents who turned him down.

class="has-text-align-none">Hall’s lone UFC loss came to current Lightweight champion Ilia Topuria, who figured out his puzzle and knocked him out in the first round (watch highlights).

class="has-text-align-none">“The Wizard” rebounded from his first UFC loss by defeating Darrick Minner, but he hasn’t competed since.

class="has-text-align-none">With the division looking completely different since his absence, it is tough to know where Hall fits at this point. However, with only one or two fights left before he calls it a career, UFC should be able to find him a couple of fun grappling matchups.

class="has-text-align-none">Although, yeah, we all missed out on Hall vs. Kron Gracie.

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