Devan Bailey Quits Basketball for MMA Career

GB BASKETBALL

Former Great Britain international Devan Bailey has quit basketball in favour of a career in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA).

Bailey – who spent four seasons in the BBL with three different teams – admitted to ‘falling out of love’ with the game.

“I just got a bit fed up with basketball and I fell out of love with it to be honest,” he told the Chester Chronicle.

“I felt like I needed a change as I’d been playing basketball for 10 years and I just didn’t see any progression for me. I’d been playing in the BBL where the money wasn’t great and I needed to make a decision about what I wanted from my life and what would make me happy.

“I’d always been interested in MMA and I thought I would give it a go and I’m so glad that I did.”

Bailey represented his country at all age groups from England’s Under-16’s all the way up to the GB Senior Men’s National Team having been called up to the squad for the EuroBasket 2015 Qualifiers last year.

The Rochford-born guard played in his first European Championships in 2005 with the under-16’s before featuring in two major tournaments with the under-18’s and averaged 9.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3 assists per game at the 2007 European Championships.

Bailey earned 13 caps for the GB Senior team and had been part of the initial squad ahead of the 2012 London Olympics. The 26-year-old made the final squad for the EuroBasket 2015 Qualifiers last year, as GB missed were beaten twice by Bosnia & Iceland to miss out on qualification.

The 26-year-old last played in Guadeloupe to finish last season, and now aims to make it into the professional ranks of MMA.

Do you like our work?

We have a tiny favour to ask. In 2018 we set out to make Hoopsfix sustainable by building our relationship directly with our readers. Up until now, Hoopsfix has been creating editorials, videos and podcasts to provide sorely missing coverage of the British game and its distinct culture and community.

We have funded Hoopsfix with our freelance work creating basketball media, but sadly that means not only does it fall behind our client’s priorities, but some of those clients are the same organisations we need to report objectively on putting us in a conflicted position.

We want to devote more time to our mission of helping British basketball reach its potential, and produce even more content for the basketball community by making Hoopsfix a sustainable 100% independent business funded directly by our readers through Patreon.

If everyone who enjoys our content chose to support us, our future would be much more secure. For as little as $3 per month, you can support Hoopsfix – and it only takes a minute.

We are tremendously honoured and humbled to have a community of people who value what we do, and we look forward to being at the forefront of the British game as it continues to evolve.

Support Hoopsfix