I was reading in the news about Krzysztof Soszynski saying he was done and not remembering saying it.
First of all, I think that happens sometimes when you get your bell rung, there are times that you draw a few blanks. I remember after I got beat up pretty badly by Rich Franklin, I had trouble connecting the dots for a few hours after the fight. I could say the same thing about my fights against Wilson Gouveia and Alan Belcher.
Having said that, even if he doesn’t remember saying he was done and that was his last fight, he was obviously saying things he was thinking anyway.
I’ll tell you one thing. It’s interesting to hear somebody else saying the things he said, because I’ve been thinking them myself, such as pouring a lot of time and effort and resources into training for 2-3 months and fighting but then not being in the upper echelon of pay scales. It makes it difficult to make ends meet and make a career out of it.
This is especially true as you get older, and have more responsibilities like mortgages and children. There are lots of young guys out there who are hungry and willing to fight and can live on those kind of dollars.
But when you get older and get to different points in your lives, you can’t justify a $20K payday. If you’re a pro fighter and that’s your job, you can’t live on that paycheque every 4-6 months. So I get where he was coming from.
Not to mention the rigours of training and not being young. He and I got started at about the same time, late in the game relative to a lot of the young fighters in MMA these days. Myself, I had not done any kind of combat sports until I was 25.
He talked about how he feels he’s always trying to catch up skills-wise with people who have been wrestling for 10 years or doing jiu-jitsu for years. It puts you behind the 8-ball, and not just skills wise, but injury wise. There are nagging injuries always there when you get started later in your career and you’re older.
I felt his dilemma. When it’s something you love, it’s a sport you want to do and you’re at the highest level of the sport so it’s hard to let that go and walk away. But on the other hand, you’ve got age, injuries and you’re struggling to make a decent living. For the work you put in, it’s not a huge return. It’s certainly not the million-dollar paydays like Manny Pacquiao or Floyd Mayweather or some other pro fighters. Even people at the lowest level in other pro sports are making hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.
I’ll be interested to see if he fights again, because we’re also in the same boat career wise, coming off a loss. I don’t want to end my MMA career on a loss and I’m sure he doesn’t either. Given a great fight offer, I would love opportunity to do it again, as I’m sure he would. So let’s hope for a redo, for both of us.
UFC 141 predictions
On to the big news, the big fight card on Friday. I watched the UFC Countdown show this week and it made the Brock Lesnar-Alistair Overeem fight even more intriguing for me. These are two huge guys. Man they’re big men. They’re big, strong, intimidating men, with muscles bulging everywhere.
I don’t care how healthy Lesnar is, and how re-invigorated he says he is, he says he spent 10 months on the farm in Canada, with no cellphone, no TV, and didn’t train, he just relaxed. For a guy who hates Canada so much, and says the health care is poor, he sure spends a lot of time in Canada. (Not to mention shooting deer and leaving the body to waste.)
Watch two live preliminary fights for UFC 141 Friday night on Sportsnet Ontario, Pacific at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT. You can also follow live results all night, starting at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT here as the promotion returns to its old 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT pay-per-view timeslot.
All the things taken into account, I just believe Lesnar doesn’t like to get punched, and he’s going up against a guy who’s made great career for himself punching and kicking and kneeing guys. He’s a K-1 champ, beating some of the best of all time. Last year, he beat Peter Aerts, who is one of the best in the world.
He’s a phenomenal striker, and he’s not afraid to grapple either. Everyone thinks if Lesnar gets him down — because he’s such a great wrestler — the fight will be all over, but I disagree. Overeem has shown he’s okay to grapple.
So here are my picks.
Brock Lesnar vs. Alistair Overeem
I’m picking Overeem to TKO Lesnar.
Nate Diaz vs. Donald Cerrone
If I wasn’t excited enough about watching Overeem-Lesnar, man am I stoked to watch Diaz-Cerrone. At the press conference, Diaz was being typical Diaz, I can’t describe it any better than that.
And Cerrone, I personally find him a bit cocky, but he’s been on a tear and is super exciting to watch. I couldn’t be more happy to see him take it to Diaz and that’s my prediction. I think he’s going to beat him up. Cerrone is just too fast and too technical for Diaz and he’s got the skills on the ground.
Diaz won his last fight, but he got owned in his previous two by Rory MacDonald and Dong Hyun Kim. I think with a couple more fights, Cerrone will be a top contender at 155.
Jon Fitch vs. Johny Hendricks
Fitch has had a long layoff but prior to that he was unstoppable at welterweight, short of GSP. I’m going with Fitch and I’m looking forward to seeing him back in the Octagon.
Vladimir Matyushenko vs. Alexander Gustafsson
I’m going to go with Gustafsson. I think he’s got good striking and great submissions. Matyushenko is strong and powerful and if he hits this kid he could knock him out, but I just like Gustafsson’s chances.
Nam Phan vs. Jimy Hettes
Nam Phan against who? I’m picking Phan.
Ross Pearson vs. Junior Assuncao
I’m going to go with Pearson. He impresses me standing. I’ll take him by TKO.
Anthony Njokuani vs. Danny Castillo
I’m picking Castillo.
Dong Hyun Kim vs. Sean Pierson
I think this is a tough fight for Pierson, because Kim is a very big guy and tends to slow the pace of the fight down. But I’m going to go with my buddy Pierson.
And that’s it. Happy New Year everyone! Talk to you in the New Year.
