'It's always tempting': Michelle Waterson-Gomez reflects on retirement, difficulties fighters face considering comeback

30/07/2025 15:00

It's been over a year since Michelle Waterson-Gomez called it a career, but despite all her success outside the cage, she admits the desire to fight again will probably never go away.

The veteran strawweight, who spent nearly a decade and 15 fights with the UFC, decided to retire in 2024 as she turned her full focus towards her family as well as other endeavors that don't involve getting punched in the face. These days, Waterson-Gomez is calling fights as a color commentator on the regional combat sports circuit, providing analysis as part of the UFC's broadcast team, and even dabbling in acting with a featured role in a new horror film directed by fellow UFC veteran Keith Jardine.

But no matter how she fills her days, Waterson-Gomez still has that desire to go back for one more fight.

"It's hard, especially since I've been commentating," Waterson-Gomez told MMA Fighting. "I just went to the UFC International Fight Week, and every time I watched the fighters step inside the octagon, it made me wish I was doing it still. I wish I was inside the octagon instead of in the arena being a spectator. I don't think it's something that will ever go away.

"But it is really cool being able to see it from a different light and kind of see how amazing it was that I was able to do it for 18 years. It was an amazing career and I think sometimes when you're in it, you don't realize it. You're just head down, grinding, you're in the cut. Being able to step away from it, and be in the crowd and look around, it's like oh my gosh, all these people are here to watch these fighters put their heart and soul on the line and it was really amazing."

Many athletes who close the door on MMA end up competing in some other sport like boxing, kickboxing or even bare-knuckle fighting.

Waterson-Gomez says she rarely escapes any event without somebody asking her about fighting again so it's almost impossible to avoid that subject. It turns out even her fellow fighters constantly ask that same question.

"It's always tempting," Waterson-Gomez said. "I did some in ring announcing for Karate Combat and I'm talking to Bas [Rutten] and he's like, 'You should get into it, this is perfect for you, this is your wheelhouse!' It's definitely tempting. The competitor in me and the fighter in me is like I wonder.

"But I have realized as well, all these other things I'm trying to get into, being an analyst for the UFC, getting into the acting world, it takes just as much dedication, and if I want to make a run at it, I have to be able to dedicate myself to those things as well."

There's a multitude of reasons why fighters don't stay retired - including the obvious financial benefits - for Waterson-Gomez, from a personal perspective, the toughest part is never getting that certain feeling again that comes along with fighting.

"There's nothing like preparing for a fight," Waterson-Gomez said. "The whole aspect around fighting, around dedicating everything to these 15 or 25 minutes under the lights, there's nothing else like it. Walking out to the octagon and being able to fight in front of hundreds of thousands of people around the world. It's a huge, huge adrenaline hit. For a lot of fighters, it's hard to find that in any other space.

"You become a fighter, you become a warrior and when you step away from it, you miss it. You go through withdrawals. You go through depression. There's so many things you go through. But luckily, I have an amazing husband, an amazing family and supportive team behind me to help me move to the next chapter and put as much energy into all the other endeavors that I'm doing as much as I was in fighting."

While she confesses it's difficult to not pull the trigger and come back one more time, Waterson-Gomez accepts that's the reality every fighter deals with after retiring.

Thankfully, she's still very much involved with the sport thanks to her commentating and analyst gigs, though even that comes along with its own set of problems.

"It's made it easier but it's also one of those things and everybody goes through it, it's like dang, if I only had one more fight," Waterson-Gomez said. "It's a shoulda, woulda, coulda type thing. It's like everybody does it when they're away from it. I'll just take one more and this time I'm going to commit everything to it and I'm not going to have any regrets and I'm not going to be scared.

"That's always going to be there but still being able to touch the magic in different ways has absolutely helped me transition."

In addition to her broadcasting work, Waterson-Gomez has expanded her portfolio with more and more acting gigs, including a role in Jardine's writing and directorial debut, Kill Me Again. She stars in the film alongside Brandon Fehr (Final Destination) and Raoul Max Trujillo (Mayans M.C.) as well as some recognizable faces from the fight world, including Maurice Greene and Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone.

Even during her fight career, Waterson-Gomez crossed over into acting occasionally but usually in action-heavy roles with stunts where her natural athletic talents came in handy. Now, she's doing dialogue and playing characters who never throw a single punch.

"It's actually come full circle for me," Waterson-Gomez said. "When I was in high school, I was a huge thespian and going into college, I was actually double majoring in theater and sports science. It was always my dream to be able to be a storyteller. That's what acting is. It's being able to pull other people into the story and take them away from the reality of life. My journey happened to take me into the fight realm where I still got to tell a story — it was my story though.

"That's why I'm so thankful for Keith Jardine trusting me. I had a small role in the movie, but it was great to be able to step outside of a normal movie that I would get cast for where it was more action based and they could trust me with that because that's my wheelhouse. But to just be a nurse in this thriller and to have lines and to be able to dig into that was really fun. It was just very eye-opening. Keith has been so pivotal for me and having talks with him over the course of this film being made. Just hearing his journey as he's retired and found a new passion directing and screenwriting."