Jamie Varner (photo via UFC.com)

By FCF Staff

Following Jamie Varner’s announcement at UFC on FOX 13 that he’s hanging up the gloves on his memorable career, the former WEC lightweight champ says he’s interested in creating a union for fighters.

The 30 year-old, who was forced to tap-out to a rear-naked-choke from Drew Dober on Saturday night, spoke to the media after the bout. When asked about his future in the sport, Varner said he plans to coach, and also relayed the following (quote via MMA Junkie.com):

“I would love to start some type of union for fighters,” Varner said. “I mean, the sport is growing, and we’re getting all these big-time endorsement deals, and a lot of us – we’re just fighters. We don’t think about the next step…”

“We are a mainstream, major sport now, and if you look at all the mainstream, major sports, they all have unions, and they have league minimums and some sort of retirement (plan) and all that kind of stuff,” the retired fighter added .”I think that’s something that needs to happen for fighters because this is one of those careers that when it’s over, a lot of these guys don’t have something else.”

Varner retired from MMA armed with an overall record of 21-11-1. The Arizona fighter has battled injuries in recent years, and cited that as a driving factor in why he’s decided to quit fighting.