Joe! I love you man, but the end of your career means the end of your career, not five years from now. Maybe that’s the tail-end of your career, but now we’re getting into semantics. And besides, no MMA fighter retires once, they retire at least a few times, while talking about retirement for the last half of their career. This is just how it happens.
It doesn’t mean I don’t want to watch Joe Riggs win Fightmaster tonight at Bellator 106, I’m just saying…
“I’m at the end of my career, not because I can’t compete, but there are other things I want to do in life. I want to make one more run at the title and then hang them up. It could take one year, it could take five.”
“I think it’s obvious when a fighter has had too much, he doesn’t have the chin he used to, there are a lot of signs. For instance, Phil Baroni should have retired several years ago, but that goes for a lot of fighters, they attach their whole identity to fighting, it’s hard for them to let go. I think fighters need to have someone in their camp to step up and tell them ‘it’s time to let go.’
“Even the commission has a responsibility. Look at Chuck Liddell, at one time he was invincible and then at the end it was gone. There is a shelf life on MMA careers.”