"I think the whole five Ferrari comment is that at this point in my career, I'm actually making less money than when I was younger and I was 23 years old," Herring told MMAjunkie.com. "Like I said, I've got these business opportunities that have arisen, and it actually makes more sense for me to try to do that financially than try to take the time out and fight. That's the decision I'm being faced with right now."

It wasn't an easy decision, he noted.

"It's obviously a risk that I wrestle with on a daily basis," he said. "It's been a very tough decision for me. But with my current contract, I feel like I've hit the glass ceiling, so to speak. It's not that I don't ever want to fight again. But I have to be intelligent with my body and my time, and (if) I can find something that pays off better, I need to go down that road.

"I've got a lot of scars and wounds but not a lot to show for it. It's like, 'Do you want to keep destroying your body?' I love fighting. But it's like you wake up one day – and I'm almost 32 years old now – and you say, 'What have I really done? What's the legacy I've left for my child and my family, other than do you want to watch me on YouTube? You want to watch me on Spike TV?'

"It's not really intelligent for me to continue down this road and look up in five or 10 years and be like, 'OK, what did I get here?'"