(See that there on the right? That’s Matt Hughes’s autograph. So this photo is relevant)
In a recent feature profile on him written by Iowa’s The Daily Gate, former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes says that he is “fully retired.” Hughes last fought in September of 2011, when he was knocked out by Josh Koscheck at UFC 135.
Up to this point, the farmer-fighter has resisted describing himself as retired even as Dana Whitesuggested that he should call it a career. Currently working on his family farm and only occasionally training, Hughes says that he’s content in retirement because the UFC still “treats him well,” as they tend to do with their former champions in good standing.
“I’ve not announced my retirement, but right now it looks like I’m fully retired,” Hughes told the Gate’s Brad Cameron. “The UFC still treats me well so I can be retired. It’s just funny, when God puts you on a road, you don’t know where you are going. I have all the faith that he put me there, and I have to thank him from that.”
(See that there on the right? That’s Matt Hughes’s autograph. So this photo is relevant)
In a recent feature profile on him written by Iowa’s The Daily Gate, former UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes says that he is “fully retired.” Hughes last fought in September of 2011, when he was knocked out by Josh Koscheck at UFC 135.
Up to this point, the farmer-fighter has resisted describing himself as retired even as Dana Whitesuggested that he should call it a career. Currently working on his family farm and only occasionally training, Hughes says that he’s content in retirement because the UFC still “treats him well,” as they tend to do with their former champions in good standing.
“I’ve not announced my retirement, but right now it looks like I’m fully retired,” Hughes told the Gate’s Brad Cameron. “The UFC still treats me well so I can be retired. It’s just funny, when God puts you on a road, you don’t know where you are going. I have all the faith that he put me there, and I have to thank him from that.”
The rest of the article is worth reading as well, as it brings out more from the tight-lipped Hughes than we’ve seen in some time. He talks about his best opponents and reveals that he would have retired ten years ago had he lost to Carlos Newton. This really makes you think how lives can easily go in different directions considering the fact that it was a bad referee call that gave Hughes the win, after he was choked out by Newton, fell on top of him and accidentally knocked out the then-champion.
“If I would have lost that fight, I would have stepped away and retired,” Hughes told the Gate. “I would have went back to the family farm and probably be in the combine right now cutting beans or hauling beans. I won that fight and it kept me in it. It was that defining moment where I thought, ‘I’m done with this hobby,’ but I won the fight and I kept going forward.”
(Believe it or not, Columbia Pictures saw this coming some 8 months ago, and chose Kevin James to star in a movie about Konrad’s life.)
Maybe it’s just me, Potato Nation, but recent events have led me to believe that I have stepped into some sort of alternate reality where up is green, foot is west, and Joe Silva apparently never existed. So maybe I should just take the confounding news that current Bellator heavyweight champion and undefeated powerhouse Cole Konrad is retiring from MMA to obtain a position as a financial trader specializing in milk products as sign that my suspicions are correct. Seriously, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
The Twincities.com report said Konrad, 28, is leaving fighting to become a financial trader at a Minnesota-based firm that supplies ingredients to the feed, pet food, food processing and chemical industries. Konrad will specialize in trading milk products.
Plans to find a new champion are unclear at the moment. The news first was reported byTwincities.com and subsequently confirmed to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) by a source close to the promotion.
Of all the reasons for retirement we have heard MMA fighters give…this is a new one.
(Believe it or not, Columbia Pictures saw this coming some 8 months ago, and chose Kevin James to star in a movie about Konrad’s life.)
Maybe it’s just me, Potato Nation, but recent events have led me to believe that I have stepped into some sort of alternate reality where up is green, foot is west, and Joe Silva apparently never existed. So maybe I should just take the confounding news that current Bellator heavyweight champion and undefeated powerhouse Cole Konrad is retiring from MMA to obtain a position as a financial trader specializing in milk products as sign that my suspicions are correct. Seriously, I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
The Twincities.com report said Konrad, 28, is leaving fighting to become a financial trader at a Minnesota-based firm that supplies ingredients to the feed, pet food, food processing and chemical industries. Konrad will specialize in trading milk products.
Plans to find a new champion are unclear at the moment. The news first was reported byTwincities.com and subsequently confirmed to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) by a source close to the promotion.
Of all the reasons for retirement we have heard MMA fighters give…this is a new one.
Granted, it’s not exactly like Cole has been fighting enough lately to reel in a ton of money — he’s fought just twice since the start of 2011 — but considering how far he has managed to come in the sport despite being a professional for less than two years, you can’t help but feel that he is blowing a huge opportunity here.
Apparently there is a lot of money to be made in milk these days, especially in the line of work Konrad has chosen, but I just get creeped out by the kind of crowd it draws. Best of luck to Konrad, though.
Konrad now joins Jorgen Kruth as the second flabbergasting retirement in as many weeks to happen in the world of MMA, and will end his career (for now, at least) with a perfect record of 9-0.
Although Bellator officials have declined to comment on Konrad’s decision, you have to imagine that the finals of this season’s heavyweight tournament — which is set to kick off on October 5th at Bellator LXXV and features a rematch between Eric Prindle and Thiago Santos that will totally happen this time, for reals — will now determine the new champion of the division.
Then again, we’ll probably hear word that three of the four quarterfinalists have been forced to withdraw from the event due to injury any minute now…
Like any great athlete with a long career, Anderson Silva and his team seem to enjoy toying with the hearts of fans with coy, contradictory talk about when the 37-year-old champ will retire. After originally threatening to retire at age 35, the Spider has had everyone from his boss to his manager opine since then about how long the UFC middleweight legend could and would possibly stay in the fight game he’s dominated since 2006. And now, Silva has gone on record himself with Estadao, saying that he’d like to fight for six more years, until he’s 43.
“I guess you can see more like six years of fighting,” Silva told Estadao. “I love what I do. The team that works with me does a fantastic job. I’ve never had a serious injury that took myself away from competition. So I think I have this a little while longer.”
Well, shit. Maybe Silva isn’t as aloof and carefree as we sometimes think. He’s one of the most financially successful MMA fighters in history and could conceivably go out on top in the next year or two, especially if he books that history-making super-fight with Georges St. Pierre. So it’s a bit surprising to see Anderson say that he loves the sport so much that he doesn’t want to leave it for some time. Maybe he’s going to take care of that unfinished Demian Maia and Thales Leites business. Or maybe he’ll get around to fighting Chris Weidman, before Weidman himself turns 43.
Like any great athlete with a long career, Anderson Silva and his team seem to enjoy toying with the hearts of fans with coy, contradictory talk about when the 37-year-old champ will retire. After originally threatening to retire at age 35, the Spider has had everyone from his boss to his manager opine since then about how long the UFC middleweight legend could and would possibly stay in the fight game he’s dominated since 2006. And now, Silva has gone on record himself with Estadao, saying that he’d like to fight for six more years, until he’s 43.
“I guess you can see more like six years of fighting,” Silva told Estadao. “I love what I do. The team that works with me does a fantastic job. I’ve never had a serious injury that took myself away from competition. So I think I have this a little while longer.”
Well, shit. Maybe Silva isn’t as aloof and carefree as we sometimes think. He’s one of the most financially successful MMA fighters in history and could conceivably go out on top in the next year or two, especially if he books that history-making super-fight with Georges St. Pierre. So it’s a bit surprising to see Anderson say that he loves the sport so much that he doesn’t want to leave it for some time. Maybe he’s going to take care of that unfinished Demian Maia and Thales Leites business. Or maybe he’ll get around to fighting Chris Weidman, before Weidman himself turns 43.
Either way, this could be good news for fight fans. Silva is the MMA G.O.A.T. now — sorry, 2005 Fedor fan-club members and flat-earthers — and other than one pretty good beating from Chael Sonnen, he really hasn’t appeared to take much damage in fights, so maybe he could stick around effectively into his forties. Then again, most damage happens in the gym, and as a former member of the Chute Boxe team, we know he’s seen his share of nasty, head-trauma-causing battles, even if they didn’t all take place in front of a paying crowd.
Silva is also a counter-striker, and relies heavily on combining an amazing sense of range with lightning reflexes. Fighters never know when those start to slip, but when quick counter-strikers begin to lose their speed, they can decline quickly and dramatically.
What do you think, ‘taters? If Silva is truly interested in fighting on into middle age, do you think he can stay dominant until he finally decides to retire, or will time catch up with him?
(“One way or another, you *will* be able to dodge bullets like Keanu by the time this is over.”)
You may or may not be aware of this, but tucked away on the preliminary card of the upcoming UFC on FUEL 5: Struve vs. Miocic card that noone can seem to stop talking about was the long awaited UFC debut of a Swedish kickboxing legend by the name of Jorgen Kruth. A three time K-1 champion and two time World Muay Thai Council Super Heavyweight Muay Thai World Champion, Kruth scored victories over fellow kickboxing champions Ray Sefo, Vitali Akhramenko, and Bob “Bitch Tits” Sapp before transitioning to MMA in 2009. He was successful in all of his first five contests, with none of his victories making it out of the first round.
After being forced to pull out from his originally scheduled debut against Cyrille Diabate at UFC on FUEL 2 due to a rib injury, Kruth was expected to grace the octagon for the first time against Brazilian body shot specialist Fabio Maldonado at the September 29th-scheduled event. However, in what may very well be an unprecedented move for a debuting UFC fighter, Kruth has actually retired from MMA less than three weeks out from his fight. The Swede made the announcement earlier today to the Swedish newspaper Expressen (as transcribed by MMAViking, appropriately enough), stating “…the last few years I have felt that I have not been there enough for my son, it’s been tough.”
After the jump: More comments from Kruth explaining his decision, and a video of him beating the shit out of Bob Sapp in a kickboxing match. And by beating the shit out of him, we mean kneeing him into submission. As he was falling back. With one of the first strikes he threw.
And yet another audience went home wondering why in the hell they passed up a trip to the zoo for that bullshit.
(“One way or another, you *will* be able to dodge bullets like Keanu by the time this is over.”)
You may or may not be aware of this, but tucked away on the preliminary card of the upcoming UFC on FUEL 5: Struve vs. Miocic card that noone can seem to stop talking about was the long awaited UFC debut of a Swedish kickboxing legend by the name of Jorgen Kruth. A three time K-1 champion and two time World Muay Thai Council Super Heavyweight Muay Thai World Champion, Kruth scored victories over fellow kickboxing champions Ray Sefo, Vitali Akhramenko, and Bob “Bitch Tits” Sapp before transitioning to MMA in 2009. He was successful in all of his first five contests, with none of his victories making it out of the first round.
After being forced to pull out from his originally scheduled debut against Cyrille Diabate at UFC on FUEL 2 due to a rib injury, Kruth was expected to grace the octagon for the first time against Brazilian body shot specialist Fabio Maldonado at the September 29th-scheduled event. However, in what may very well be an unprecedented move for a debuting UFC fighter, Kruth has actually retired from MMA less than three weeks out from his fight. The Swede made the announcement earlier today to the Swedish newspaper Expressen (as transcribed by MMAViking, appropriately enough), stating “…the last few years I have felt that I have not been there enough for my son, it’s been tough.”
Another factor Kruth attributed to the decision was his own fleeting desire to compete at the level he knows he was once capable of.
I’ve had a wonderful career. I have become world champion in Thai boxing and competed in K1 in Japan and Thailand. But I’ve probably still got on best with competing in Sweden, the Swedish public support is the absolute best.
I’ve been thinking a long time, but now I feel that it is time. I do not have the focus or motivation anymore and the body does not respond. I’m not getting the results I want. I have not reached the level required to compete and do not feel it’s working anymore. I can not reach where I want and when I do not want to compete, I want to end up on top.
While we respect the fact that Kruth was able to come to such a tough decision before he seriously injured himself in the ring, his decision to accept a contract with the sport’s highest organization in the first place seems a little bizarre in hindsight, especially if he has been debating over the decision to retire for some time now.
But hey, at least Kruth will always be remembered as the fifteenth guy to make Bob Sapp’s corner throw in the towel…
As of this write up, Maldonado is without a dance partner for UFC on FUEL 5, but we’ve heard that he somehow already lost the fight 30-27 across the board despite clubbing the absolute shit out of TBA’s torso.
There are two generations of MMA fighters. The older, experienced veterans—some of which need to hang up the gloves very soon. Then there are the hungry up-and-coming fighters eager to make a name for themselves and gain more fans and exposure. S…
There are two generations of MMA fighters. The older, experienced veterans—some of which need to hang up the gloves very soon. Then there are the hungry up-and-coming fighters eager to make a name for themselves and gain more fans and exposure. Some of the true veterans of the sport are reluctant to let go just […]
(How many times do I have to tell you people this? I HAVE COMMITMENT ISSUES!)
My grandfather always told me “Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear,” a statement that would in turn lead to a lifetime’s worth of cynicism. So perhaps it’s just my general misanthropy rearing its ugly head, but when former UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar released a video last night declaring that he was “never coming back” to the WWE, I was a bit skeptical. After all, Lesnar just returned to the promotion in April, and I may not follow the WWE anymore, but I’m pretty sure that Vince McMahon doesn’t hand out many five month contracts. For Christ’s sake, isn’t Ric Flair’s decomposing corpse still fighting for a retirement check that will never come?
Anyway, Lesnar released the video that awaits you after the jump, stating:
I came here and I accomplished everything that I said I was going to do. There’s nothing left for me here to conquer. I’m leaving the WWE and I’m never coming back.
(How many times do I have to tell you people this? I HAVE COMMITMENT ISSUES!)
My grandfather always told me “Believe half of what you see and none of what you hear,” a statement that would in turn lead to a lifetime’s worth of cynicism. So perhaps it’s just my general misanthropy rearing its ugly head, but when former UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar released a video last night declaring that he was “never coming back” to the WWE, I was a bit skeptical. After all, Lesnar just returned to the promotion in April, and I may not follow the WWE anymore, but I’m pretty sure that Vince McMahon doesn’t hand out many five month contracts. For Christ’s sake, isn’t Ric Flair’s decomposing corpse still fighting for a retirement check that will never come?
Anyway, Lesnar released the video that awaits you after the jump, stating:
I came here and I accomplished everything that I said I was going to do. There’s nothing left for me here to conquer. I’m leaving the WWE and I’m never coming back.
Typical to Lesnar’s character, his message was succinct and to the point. Atypical of Lesnar, however, was his ability to string two sentences together without mentioning chicken salad or chicken shit.
Before you even mention it (although you undoubtedly will), I get it, Lesnar is no longer of our concern, wrestling is gay, etc. And in a way, I agree with you, homophobic notions aside of course. I haven’t watched a professional wrestling match since I was in 7th grade aside from the occasional Youtube tribute to the Stone Cold Stunner, and whatever Lesnar decides to do with his career from this point on is completely up to him. But to act as if there is no crossover between MMA and professional wrestling is blindingly ignorant, and there is little denying that Lesnar is one of the most polarizing, not to mention diverse, figures in both worlds. He converted legions of fans over to the world of MMA, and retired from the sport almost as quickly as he made an impact on it. Following the path of his career may seem as frivolous as following Gina Carano’s these days, but I don’t think we should completely turn our back on anyone who has done as much for the sport as either of those two have.
According to an article by Bleacher Report, however, which broke down last weekend’s Summerslam event, the main event bout between Lesnar and “rival” Triple H was basically a shitshow. Marred by inactivity and repetition, not to mention Lesnar breaking Triple H’s arm with a kimuraagain, author Tim Keeney called for an end to the feud once and for all. This could be just a case of a kneejerk overreaction to an event that failed to live up to the hype, or it could be an honest assessment of how quickly Lesnar’s flame has burned out in the WWE. Lesnar retired at the exact moment he became aware of his fleeting relevance in the UFC, and this video seems to be an acknowledgement of a similar mindset regarding his career in professional wrestling. But perhaps I am just reading too far into things.
This leads me to ask: Has Lesnar truly reached the end of the road as far as his sporting career is concerned, or is this just another ploy by the WWE to boost his popularity? Or will we see Lesnar attempt to recapture NFL glory next?
