Ultimate Fighting Championship officials have released lightweight John Gunderson following a unanimous-decision loss to Yves Edwards at UFC Fight Night 22.

Gunderson today informed MMAjunkie.com of the news.

Although Gunderson initially contemplated retirement in the event of an octagon exit, he has decided to soldier on and hopes to fight his way back into the organization.

Frank Trigg's fighting career isn't over.

Trigg, who hinted at a possible retirement following his February release from the UFC, has booked a Nov. 9 fight in Israel, the 38-year-old today announced.

The former top UFC contender fights Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Roy Neeman at an International Fighting Championship event in Tel Aviv.

After a four year retirement from competing, Bill Crawford made a big comeback at the METAL MILIITIA MONTREAL BENCH WARS, held on June 26, 2010 at Montreal Barbell.

Following 16 years of competition and titles with organizations such as the UFC, Pancrase, WEC and Strikeforce, Frank Shamrock has announced his retirement from mixed martial arts.

The 37-year-old MMA trailblazer announced his retirement during tonight's "Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Werdum" event at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.

Shamrock's announcement was carried as part of the night's Showtime broadcast, on which he served as a color analyst.

Recent media reports that Fedor Emelianenko is on the verge of retirement are blown out of proportion, according to his representatives.

The top-ranked heavyweight set off a fresh round of speculation when a sentence allegedly went missing in the translation of his media teleconference promoting Saturday's Strikeforce fight with Fabricio Werdum.

While his translator, Steven Bash, concedes he may have missed a possibly crucial statement, he said there's nothing to hide.

UFC 115, Chuck Liddell's retirement, drug testing, MMA officiating, premature stoppages, bandwagon fans and too-friendly opponents are just a few of the many topics covered in this week's edition of The Sunday Junkie.

But the winner of our weekly reader-feedback feature focused on another topic - one that popped up at UFC 115 and many other recent shows.

As Rob "Reako" Stewart notes, as the sport of mixed martial arts continues to grow and evolve, so, too, does the number of broken hands we see among fighters. Is it time to redesign MMA gloves?

One retirement was planned - but the other initially came as a surprise - at this past weekend's ASTRA event, a one-off show promoted by Japanese entertainment group J-Rock.

As expected headliner and Japanese MMA legend Hidehiko Yoshida announced his retirement following a decision loss to Kazuhiro Nakamura. Additionally, 2000 Olympic judo gold medalist Makoto Takimoto pulled out of the event last month and joins the Japanese veteran in retirement.

The event took place April 25 in front of approximately 11,000 spectators at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, Japan.

Next month's ASTRA event, which is expected to feature the retirement fight of Japanese star Hidehiko Yoshida, today had a couple significant changes.

For the first time since April 2004, Enson Inoue, an early Shooto champion who owns a 1998 victory over Randy Couture, enters professional mixed-martial-arts competition and meets New Zealand kickboxer Antz Nansen.

Additionally, Japanese Olympic Judo gold medalist Makoto Takimoto, a
PRIDE and World Victory Road veteran expected to compete on the ASTRA
card, instead announced his retirement from the sport.

When entering the dawns of their careers and retirement looms, have MMA fighters learned anything from our boxing brethren?

In this week's "Ask the Fight Doc" installment, MMAjunkie.com medical columnist Dr. Johnny Benjamin tackles the topic of fighter retirement and the many factors that can cloud a competitor's decision to hang up the gloves for good.

As Dr. Benjamin explains, the same factors and the same people who help a fighter reach greatness can prove to be his or her downfall.