Efter att under helgen ha meddelat sin pension från både organisationen UFC och sporten MMA väljer Carlos Condit nu att berätta mer om karriärens slutskede.
Carlos Condit om pensionen: Det var dags att gå vidare
För några dagar sedan kom det ut att welterviktsveteranen och den tidigare titelutmanaren i UFC, Carlos Condit (32-14) väljer att pensionera sig från MMA. Detta efter att han sedan 2015 enbart tagit hem två segrar i åtta matcher. Nu talar Condit ut om vad det var som fick honom att till slut välja att gå i pension och hur slutskedet av karriären såg ut ur hans ögon.
Klarade inte längre av att göra vad som krävdes
Under en medverkan i “The MMA Hour” talade Condit ut om pensionen och berättade då att han kände att det var dags i och med att han inte längre kände att han kunde göra vad som krävdes för att hänga med i toppen av weltervikt.
It was time, man. It was time. For a lot of different reasons. After that last fight, I felt like I put together a good camp and I was just a step behind Max. I feel like I could really try to tweak things and I could try to figure out what’s missing, what part of the formula isn’t working right now and then go and test it again and test it again, but that’s a tough thing to do. That’s a tough thing to do because ultimately I have to go and put myself on the firing line to see if what I’m doing is working. At a certain point there’s diminishing returns, so I think it’s time to move on.
Kände sig inte som vanligt efter senaste förlusten
Efter sin senaste förlust, mot Max Griffin (18-8), berättar Condit att han inte var irriterad på samma sätt som han brukar vara efter förluster utan att han snarare kände att det nu var dags att sluta. Det var detta som fick honom att göra valet att pensionera sig.
I’d been leaving a hotel room after a loss and been pissed off and leaving all my gear in a real salty mood and basically, ‘I’m done with this shit.’ But this time was different. I wasn’t salty about it, I just felt like it was the right move. Probably about three weeks or a month ago I called Dana and I let him know, so this thing has been coming down the pipe for a little while.
Inte längre beredd att göra vad som krävs
Trots att han innan förlusten mot Griffin stod med två raka vinster så menar Condit att han inte längre är beredd att göra det som krävs av honom för att ta hem fler vinster.
I’m an optimist. I do get into those spots where I get down about things, but as soon as there’s any kind of sunlight peeking through the clouds I grasp onto that. I definitely felt some momentum, but also I think it’s more so just the time and a big piece of this is the amount of time and energy that I am still willing to put into fighting at the highest levels, I think in some ways I’m compromising things in my life, in my personal life. To train as a professional mixed martial artist at the highest level of the sport, that takes a lot. That takes a lot out of me energetically, emotionally, just everything. I have less to give to the rest of my life. And at this point I don’t want to make that compromise anymore.
Har älskat hela sin tid i sporten
Condit har efter nästan 20 år i sporten svårt att välja bara ett favoritminne men han påpekar att han har älskat hela sin tid som tävlandes i MMA.
That’s really tough. I’ve loved every fucking second of it. The ups, the downs, all of it. If I had to pick a specific one, these last two fights that I won when we were out in Abu Dhabi and really just living in this surreal atmosphere. My coaches are all my really good friends and we had the opportunity to go to this crazy nice place and fight. That was a lot of fun. But I have 19, almost 20 years worth of memories so it would be really hard to pinpoint. Having had the opportunity compete against great fighters, train alongside these great champions, since day one I have always passionate about this thing. I still am. As I was thinking and all the messages, tons of messages and all this stuff coming through about my retirement, congratulating me, I’ve been sitting with that a little bit and I think maybe what resonated with people was that I approached this with passion. I stepped out there and I loved to fight, I love what I do, and I hoped every single time to go out there and put that on display. I love every second of this.
Condit gick sin första match som proffs i MMA under 2002 och lyckades då besegra Nick Roscorla via submission i matchens första rond.
