Robert 'Danger' McCarthy

Leighton Levy, Star Writer

Following his first round knockout at the hands of Aruban MMA fighter Evan Nedd on the weekend, Robert 'Danger' McCarthy has thrown in the towel and retired from the sport. He said he will now focus on developing the young fighters in his care and transform them into champions.

McCarthy, 34, fought the younger Ned in Aruba on Saturday on a 12-fight card dubbed MMA Throwdown at the Centro Deportivo Betico Croes in Aruba. Both fighters went at it hard in the first round where McCarthy was knocked down twice; the second time for good. "Maybe I was over confident.

Younger days

I am also getting old," McCarthy said after the fight. "I won a lot of fights in my younger days but when you see you got knocked down two times, the first time was a buck up but the second time, there ain't no excuse. I've got to leave this. I am officially retired."

He paid respects to ICW, whose middleweight belt he won earlier this year; and King of the Rock and Eye for an Eye, who staged the fight on the weekend as well as several others with whom he has worked over his career as an MMA fighter. He had special praise for Nedd, whom he said, hit like a truck.

McCarthy, who had been training in New Jersey in preparation for the fight, said he will now focus his attentions to the young fighters in his club, RCD Lions. "I will just work with my RCD Lions. I know I can make a champion of Jamaica from the lions," he said.