Leonard Garcia Announces Retirement Following Loss to Daniel Pineda at LFC 37

Popular brawler Leonard Garcia announced his retirement following a first-round loss to Daniel Pineda at Legacy Fighting Championship 37 on Friday night.

Pineda took down the 35-year-old “Bad Boy” early and landed ground-and-pound before submitting his foe with a kimura 1:54 into the opening stanza. While Garcia revealed his plans to leave MMA behind, he did leave the door open to compete on a Legacy FC kickboxing card sometime in 2015.

Garcia developed a reputation for entertaining fights over the course of a 31-bout career that began in 1999. He debuted in the Octagon on April 7, 2007 at UFC 69 against Roger Huerta in a fight that would later grace the cover of Sports Illustrated.

The Jackson-Wink MMA product would go on to win multiple “Fight of the Night” bonuses during his tenure with the UFC and WEC. His 2010 slugfest against Chan Sung Jung at WEC 48 was arguably his most memorable performance, as it captured two of his most notable qualities: a willingness to trade punches and an uncanny knack for winning contentious verdicts.

Garcia was released from the UFC in 2013 following a five-fight skid. He won his first three Legacy appearances before falling to Damon Jackson and Pineda in his last two outings. Garcia hangs up his four-ounce gloves with an 18-13-1 mark overall and wins over the likes of Jung, Jens Pulver, Hiroyuki Takaya and Nam Phan.