{"id":36571,"date":"2026-01-22T22:11:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Former-Invicta-FC-Champ-Jillian-DeCoursey-Announces-Retirement-199846"},"modified":"2026-01-22T22:11:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T22:11:23","slug":"former-invicta-fc-champ-jillian-decoursey-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/former-invicta-fc-champ-jillian-decoursey-announces-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Invicta FC Champ Jillian DeCoursey Announces Retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n

She may have only needed 10 walks to the cage as a pro, but
\nex-Invicta Fighting Championships<\/a> queen Jillian
\nDeCoursey<\/a> made them count.<\/p>\n

On her social media<\/a> on Thursday, DeCoursey announced her
\nretirement from MMA competition. The 41-year-old atomweight had
\nflirted with returning after dropping her belt in 2023 to Rayanne
\ndos Santos<\/a>, but efforts never materialized. A veteran of only
\nInvicta and Cage Warriors Fighting Championship<\/a> for the
\nentirety of her pro career, she won a belt with the former and
\nunsuccessfully vied for one with the latter.<\/p>\n

\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

First stepping into the cage as an amateur in 2014, the New York
\nnative rattled off eight nonprofessional victories opposite a
\nsingle defeat. Along the unpaid circuit, DeCoursey battled future
\ntalents like Hilarie
\nRose<\/a>, Marisa
\nMesser-Belenchia<\/a> and Lindsey
\nVanZandt<\/a>, beating all three. After taking a decision for an
\namateur belt in 2017, DeCoursey turned pro.<\/p>\n

Might Make \u2018Fill in the Blank\u2019 My New Fight Name<\/h2>\n

The fighter known by many fight names including \u201cJilly Bean,\u201d
\n\u201cLionheart\u201d and jokingly by ones like \u201cCool
\nAmerican\u201d<\/a> and \u201cMedium
\nRare and Pepper Crusted\u201d<\/a> won her first two outings on the
\nInvicta FC cage. The then-unbeaten athlete faced off against future
\nchamp Alesha
\nZappitella<\/a> in 2018. A pattern emerged for the remainder of her
\ncareer, where she would win two and then lose the next match.<\/p>\n

In a jaunt to 115 pounds in 2020, DeCoursey faced off against
\nfuture Ultimate Fighting Championship<\/a> athlete Elise Reed<\/a>
\nand dropped a decision after four rounds of combat for the CFFC
\nthrone. The Long Island MMA fighter proceeded to return to the
\nconfines of the Invicta cage after a layoff of over 18 months.<\/p>\n

Everything came to a head when DeCoursey punched out former foe
\nVanZandt in 61 seconds at Invicta FC 47 in 2022. This placed the
\natomweight in contention for a championship opportunity, and she
\nwon it four-plus months later by tapping Jessica
\nDelboni<\/a> to account for her sole submission victory as a pro.
\nThis career-changing triumph vaulted DeCoursey into the top five in
\nher division on Sherdog’s Official Rankings<\/a>. Her first defense
\nthe following year did not go her way, as dos Santos outworked her
\nand busted her up across five fairly one-sided rounds in what will
\ngo down as DeCoursey’s final match.<\/p>\n

DeCoursey\u2019s full statement<\/a> reads as follows:<\/p>\n

\u201cI have rewritten this a bunch of times. I will try and keep
\nthis short, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll be successful. For those who
\nhaven\u2019t seen my post on other social media, I wanted to write a
\nseparate one here. I started fighting simply because it looked fun.
\nAt that time I had no goals. As my amateur career continued I hoped
\nto one day fight for Invicta, the best promotion for women\u2019s MMA,
\nbut that felt unattainable. I didn\u2019t see myself at that level.
\u201cBut my career was made out of doing things that I wasn\u2019t supposed
\nto be able to do. I became the Invicta atomweight champion, I got
\nto fight my entire pro career for only two promotions, and they are
\ntwo of the best promotions, Invicta and CFFC.
\u201cI\u2019ve achieved more than I ever thought possible. And I did it
\nwithout compromising my morals and beliefs. It was always done my
\nway.
\u201cBut now it\u2019s time for the next chapter in my life. So I am
\nofficially retired. I love fighting. I love teaching fighting. I
\nlove watching fighting. I can still teach it and watch it and
\nthat\u2019s good enough for me at this point. At some point in my
\ncareer, a lot of people on here started to really get behind me. I
\ndidn\u2019t know why and I still don\u2019t know why, but it means everything
\nto me. When I won that title, we won that title. Some people hate
\nme and that\u2019s OK too. We get to like and hate who we like and even
\nif you hate me, thank you for watching me, even if you were rooting
\nagainst me.
\u201cThis isn\u2019t goodbye. This is the most beautiful sport in the world,
\nand I can never leave it. I\u2019m working on something that is gonna
\nlet me stay involved in the sport as long as I want to. It\u2019s just
\ngonna take a little time to put it together.
\u201cBut I\u2019m still gonna be here every day, still live tweeting about
\nfights or talking about the sport. I\u2019m still gonna advocate for
\nwomen in the sport, I\u2019m still available anytime any young fighter
\nneeds advice, and I\u2019m still gonna be outspoken, probably more so
\nnow.
\u201cAll I ever wanted was to be a good representative for the sport,
\nbe a good influence on young women in the sport, and maybe leave
\nthe sport at least one percent better than it was when I got into
\nit. I hope I\u2019ve done that.
\u201cMy career is what it is. Everyone can form their own opinions on
\nwhat it is, but I am damn proud of it. I made a career out of doing
\nwhat I was told I couldn\u2019t do. I always say that I don\u2019t have fans,
\nI have supporters, I have Team Lionheart. We did this together
\nbecause so many of you spoke so loud. You pushed for me to get that
\ntitle shot. That will always be appreciated and always be
\nremembered.
\u201cI\u2019m not popular, I\u2019m not famous, I go to the store and nobody
\nknows who I am. But I do have this little group of supporters that
\nis also the best group of supporters that anyone could have. Thank
\nyou and from the bottom of my heart, I love you all.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n

I have rewritten this a bunch of times. I
\nwill try and keep this short, I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll be
\nsuccessful.
For those who haven\u2019t seen my post on other social media, I wanted
\nto write a separate one here.
I started fighting simply because it looked fun. At that time I had
\nno\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/PCpCStIQUN<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Jillian
\nDeCoursey<\/a> (@lionheartjill)
\nJanuary 22, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/center> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

She may have only needed 10 walks to the cage as a pro, but ex-Invicta Fighting Championships queen Jillian DeCoursey made them count. On her social media on Thursday, DeCoursey announced her retirement from MMA competition. The 41-year-old atomweight had flirted with returning after dropping her belt in 2023 to Rayanne dos Santos, but efforts […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36572,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}