Gone fishin‘.
Somewhere on the list of retiree cliches, somewhere above tapioca but just below shuffleboard, lies fishing. At this point, Mike Pyle has probably heard them all.
With his 41st birthday coming in September and his 40th professional fight coming Thursday at UFC Fight Night 90, Pyle is an old head of MMA by anyone’s standard except Randy Couture’s.
So it’s not so shocking that retirement questions dog Pyle wherever he goes. It’s also not shocking that he has a ready-made response at the ready.
But there’s an unofficial response, too.
First, though, the party line. In a nutshell, Pyle said he’s not going to let his age dictate his decision on when to hang up the gloves.
“As long as I am confident with the training, as long as I’m able to perform in the gym and as long as I can get out of bed in a confident manner, I’ll keep going,” Pyle said in an exclusive interview with Bleacher Report. “None of these problems have arisen. But I’m not going to put myself in harm’s way. I’m never going to just be in it for the money; I’m not going to go out there and look like s—t and lie down.”
Things go off-script when Pyle starts to talk about life after fighting. Two or three times each month, Pyle escapes, often to Utah, to go fly fishing. He owns part of a fly-fishing apparel company, and it’s there where the retirement talk really gains energy.
“I’m sitting here at my desk, tying flies right now,” Pyle said. “I keep going until I don’t have any cell phone service. That’s how I know I’ve gone far enough. I want to get lost out there. …My business is going great, so I’ve got that in my back pocket.”
Although Pyle isn’t the young MMA buck he once was, he remains a viable UFC welterweight. True, he is a loser in two of his last three—and those three were spread over a span of 18 months—but he rebounded in a big way in February. With a loss potentially meaning his walking papers, Pyle came back from an early knockdown to TKO Sean Spencer in the third round. The bout earned both men a Fight of the Night performance bonus from the UFC.
It also showed a skill set—striking—that was largely absent from the young Pyle’s arsenal. Added to his bread-and-butter submission repertoire, it makes for a fighter who not only learned new tricks, but attempts to embody perhaps the ultimate veteran cliche.
“I’m crafty,” Pyle said. “I have more patience, more timing; that always comes with time and experience. I’ve always taken pride in being a bit crafty. …In the earlier days, there were a lot of submissions because my striking was not as crisp and technical as it is now. You can’t be stuck in the mud. You have to evolve with the sport.”
Although it may not seem like MMA and fly fishing have a lot in common, to Pyle they do.
“Being technical about it,” Pyle said of the things that attract him to fishing. “I think it’s why I get labeled as the crafty veteran. There’s a craft to fighting and a craft to fly fishing.”
For the moment, Alberto Mina, Pyle’s Fight Night 90 opponent, is top of mind. Mina is 2-0 in the UFC and 12-0 overall. But if Pyle can incorporate his craft, he’ll probably be OK, even if he loses.
“You have to strategically attack that river and attack those fish. It’s a reward to be able to outsmart them,” Pyle said. “It’s a Zen place. Being in nature, standing in a river with your buddy or just yourself.”
All quotes obtained firsthand.
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