I was sitting and watching my little girl swim the other night and I asked myself a question I’ve asked myself many, many times in the past six months: “Am I ever going to fight again?”
Realistically, is it going to happen? I had been holding out hopes that the UFC would come back to Calgary this summer and I could end my career with fairy-tale win. But the longer I stayed away from fighting and been inactive, the smaller the probability was of getting that storybook ending. So on Thursday I decided to make it official and inform the UFC that I was retiring. And I’m alright with that.
I’m okay with the way things ended for me. Of course I would have loved to have ended my career with a couple wins instead of a couple losses, but I look back at my whole career and I’m happy with the way it went.
I don’t see fighting fitting into my life anymore. I’m happy with my business, running my CrossFit gym in Red Deer. I’m putting in the effort that’s required right now, so it’s being successful. I travel on the weekends, putting on seminars, working for CrossFit headquarters. I have a steady paycheque right now.
I asked myself, “At 37, 38 years old, realistically, can I put my life on hold for four months?” Actually, it’s not even can I, but do I want to put my life on hold, for just one fight? The more I asked myself the more I knew the answer was no.
I didn’t feel I needed to do it to prove anything to anyone as far as how my career went. And financially I don’t know if I want to do that, put my business and life on the back burner to train for one fight. So I made it official.
I started MMA as a hobby to stay active and stay busy after I graduated from college and finished undergrad volleyball. After playing volleyball throughout junior high school, and playing at 1993 Canada Games in Kamloops, I had come out west on a scholarship to play volleyball at Mount Royal college (now university) in Calgary. After volleyball I was looking to stay busy, so I got into MMA and it just kind of grew into a career.
I took a couple small fights and then my very first professional fight with an established promotion was with the Maximum Fighting Champion in Edmonton in 2001. At MFC 2, I beat Bill Mahood and my career just took off from there.
I’ve had the opportunity to travel to places I never would have otherwise, meet people I never would have, and done a whole set of things I never dreamed I would have done by being in MMA. I also made some incredible friends.
My MMA career has really been a gift from God. It’s actually quite shocking, because I didn’t grow up as a child dreaming of any major league career. Like I said, I grew up playing volleyball, I did MMA as a hobby, and it turned into a great career for me.
I owe so much to so many people who I couldn’t have done it without my entire career, but like the Oscars, I couldn’t even begin to start thanking people. I wouldn’t even know where to start. Obviously, a special thanks goes to my wife, who has been there since the beginning, ever since I travelled to California to train with Frank Shamrock at American Kickboxing Academy in 1999, she supported me the entire way.
I wouldn’t trade anything in my career. Of course, you always wish every loss was a win. But without those losses, I wouldn’t have learned a lot of things I did.
But most importantly, I’m leaving on my own terms. It was always in the back of my head that being inactive for so long, and with the UFC is making all these cuts, I didn’t want to be cut and then retire. This way, I’m making the decision, and I decided it was time for me to go.
Hopefully, it opens up a slot for some young guy who is willing to give everything to be in the UFC. That was exactly me seven years ago. I was willing to do whatever it takes. It would be great if a new person can come in my place who is as hungry as I was. That’s what I’m really hoping for.
The last time I saw Jordan Mein, which was before he signed with the UFC, I told him, “You know I would gladly give you my contract if I could, because I see a young guy willing to do whatever it takes.” Hopefully this paves the way for some young guy like him to get to the UFC (and preferably a Canadian!)
Also, as you get older, you start to realize you’re only one semi-bad injury away from keeping you from doing all the things you want to do in life. Those are the only things you think about when you get older. When I was younger, I never thought about getting hurt. Only as you get older, you certainly start to think about that.
I had that one really bad ankle injury in the UFC and I did recover from it to the point where I’m basically back to normal, but my ankle still bothers me sometimes. I can’t lace up a pair of skates because the laces dig into the screws in my angle.
And I’m not by any means complaining about the pay in the UFC, but before the injury, I had saved a significant amount of money. But after my injury, I was disabled for basically a year, so had to pay my mortgage and take care of my family from my savings. That’s hard to sustain and to not be able to have peace of mind with a steady paycheque is a big factor.
Now I will still keep doing my blog as long as people still want to read it! The other day one of my fighters George Belanger was in my CrossFit class and he came behind me and grabbed me in a choke just as a joke. I worked my way out of it, then picked him up and pretended to slam him. I told him afterward, “Just because I’m thinking about retiring doesn’t mean I forgot everything I know!” We were joking just before when all cuts were made, and he said to me, “I see your name wasn’t on the list; you managed to keep your job for a little while longer.”
I would love to maybe move into judging. As you know, there’s always problems with judging in this sport. I think I would be a good judge, obviously being involved in the sport, understanding the sport, I would love to get involved at that level in Calgary, and stay involved in the UFC in some level. The sport’s been great to me; I would love to give back to it.
I’ll take a small break from competing and when I’m 40, I can compete in the over-40 division for the CrossFit Games, that will be my next really competitive endeavour.
In the meantime, I’m trying to simplify things. My kids are growing up fast. My oldest son is turning 14. He asked me the other day to take him to the DMV to get a book so he can take a driving test. I don’t want to miss that.
Finally, I want to get my jiu-jitsu black belt from Gracie Barra Calgary and my longtime trainer Josh Russell. It’s always been high on my list. Now I only want to focus on the things important to me at this point.
And this being my blog, I’ll end by giving my thoughts on women’s MMA, which debuted last weekend with Ronda Rousey. For those of you who read my blog regularly, you’ll know I was skeptical as to whether it will succeed.
Since the blog is after the fact, it sort of proves me wrong pay-per-view-wise, because the first show did really well. But I still really feel the women’s division has no depth. There’s really no challenger for Rousey to fight, so unless the UFC buys out Invicta and puts some depth in the division, I don’t know where it’s going to go. She’s exciting to watch, she has a flamboyant personality, but apart from that what do they have?
I know they signed 10-plus women but they still have to build them up. They can’t just randomly pick one and say this is the No. 1 contender, or line them up and have Rousey pick which one she wants to armbar. They haven’t established the division.
Look at the flyweight division. Guys like Demetrious Johnson had already established themselves at bigger weight division and then dropped down. And they started with a mini-tournament.
I understand you have to start somewhere, I get it, but it doesn’t put Rousey in a great position. She’s a champ, but has no challengers. You can make an argument for Tate, but Rousey just broke her arm. There’s Cyborg, but she’s not in the UFC. Other than that, who do you make argument for?
They could do a tournament with the other women they’ve signed to establish a No. 1 contender, but I don’t think these other women are a draw, and then Rousey would have to wait for all the elimination fights and she can’t sit inactive. What the UFC needs is for people to fight Rousey. She’s the real draw.