What is the hardest part about being an MMA fan, besides keeping up? Longtime fans will agree - watching your heroes fall from grace by way of getting brutally beat up right before your eyes can be rather difficult to stomach.

In other sports, you sometimes see career-ending injuries, but by and large there are ample cases of athletes riding off into the sunset after finishing up their careers with a couple of not-so-great seasons. So your favorite player isn’t as sharp, athletic, or even putting up the same numbers as he or she once did in their prime; big deal.

When it comes to combat sports, when our heroes start to fade, the sight can be quite disturbing. A lot of guys go the Ken Shamrock and Takanori Gomi route, losing routinely in devastating fashion, but there are a select few O.G.’s who went out by way of the winner’s circle. Bloody Elbow has compiled a list of your top-ten MMA vets who left the sport on a W. Let us know who we missed in the comment section.

Top-10 MMA veterans that went out on a win:

**arranged by year of retirement

1.

Last fight- Technical Submission of Masakatsu Funaki on 5/26/2000

First official MMA bout in 1980

Finished each of his 11 MMA bouts (2 KO, 9 Sub)

Rumored to have a combined record of 400-0 across multiple combative disciplines

2.

Last fight - TKO of Daniel Bergman on 12/6/2003

Veteran of UFC, Pancrase, and PRIDE FC

UFC 13 middleweight tournament winner (200 pounds)

First person to defeat Tito Ortiz in a professional MMA match

3.

Last fight - TKO of Ruben Villareal on 7/22/2006

Legendary run as King of Pancrase

Won UFC heavyweight title in 1999 by defeating Kevin Randlemen at UFC 20

Put the ‘Liver Shot’ on the map

4.

5.

Last fight - Submission of Dan Hardy on 8/11/2011

Competed in MMA while simultaneously holding down a job as a firefighter

The Ultimate Fighter Season 4 finalist

Finished career with 22 submission wins

6.

Last fight - Decision over Paul Daley on 3/3/2012

2006 PRIDE welterweight Grand Prix winner

Retired on a three-fight winning streak

7.

Last fight - Decision over Alex Rozman on 4/28/2012

Won over 100 sanctioned MMA matches

UFC 4 tournament finalist

UFC 5 tournament winner

UFC 7.5 tournament winner

8.

Last fight - Decision over Tito Ortiz on 7/7/2012

Put MMA on the mainstream map with his Ultimate Fighter Season 1 Finale iconic war with Stephan Bonnar

The Ultimate Fighter Season 1 winner

Won the UFC light heavyweight title by defeating Quinton Jackson at UFC 86

9.

Last fight - TKO of Andrew Flores Smith on 9/12/2015

3x UFC heavyweight title challenger

One of the first MMA pioneers to devastate with leg kicks

Has fought every heavyweight legend under the sun, from Fedor Emelianenko to Randy Couture and everything in between

10.

Last fight- Decision over Brad Pickett on 12/17/2016

Held WEC featherweight belt for over two years

4x UFC bantamweight title challenger

Founder of Team Alpha Male and world champion coach

Candidates if they can remain retired:

Royce Gracie 15-2-3

Last fight - TKO win over Ken Shamrock on 2/19/16

Tito Ortiz 19-12-1

Last fight - Submission of Chael Sonnen on 1/21/2017

Matt Brown 21-16