UFC veteran Antoni Hardonk (8-6) has followed on the heels of Ricardo Almeida and Randy Couture by retiring from fighting as a mixed martial artist, and begins his new career coaching young fighters.
The Dutch fighter fought as a heavyweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, amassing a record of 4-4 in three years. He debuted back in November 2006 at UFC 65, earning a knockout win over Sherman Pendergarst. Hardonk would fight for the last time in the Octagon in October 2009, losing to Pat Barry via TKO, in a bout that earned both fighters the “Fight of the Night” bonus. Other notable fights in his career include losses to Frank Mir at UFC 74 and to Cheick Kongo at UFC 97.
Hardonk spoke to UFC.com about the decision to retire from fighting and beginning his new career as a coach.
“My last two fights in 2009, I wasn’t really happy with the way I prepared myself leading up to the fights, my living situation, or the results of the fights,” he said. “So at the end of 2009, I wanted to make some changes.”
“I decided to settle in California and open up my own studio,” he said. “I had my own space where I could train the way I wanted to with the people I wanted to. I always had an interest in teaching so I thought I could start teaching and build a team around me, and that’s what I did. I took a hiatus in 2010, I opened up my gym in spring of 2010, started teaching and started building a team, both for recreational practitioners that love the sport, and for some of the guys that I always trained with like Vladimir Matyushenko, Jared Hamman, and some other fighters that joined us. And I got more into the role of trainer / coach. I still had fighting in my head because I was still young and I love competing, but I got so busy that going into 2011, I felt that I was really motivated in teaching and coaching and I wasn’t really training myself as much.”
“Fighting is a full-time job,” he said. “It’s not something you can do on the side, and I didn’t want to do things halfway. I didn’t want to run my gym halfway and I didn’t want to train for a fight halfway. If I go into the Octagon, I want to be the best Antoni Hardonk ever and I want to surprise people with my new skills and I want to show a better version of me. And I felt that that was going to be difficult, so I thought about it for a while, and then I pulled the trigger and decided that I love teaching and coaching. It’s something that I’d like to focus on now and in the future.”