Mailbag: The 3 best ways to go about retiring from UFC (and actually staying that way)

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21 hours ago

How do you go about a UFC retirement in the right way (after so many examples of the various wrong ways)? What ever happened to the UFC's promise of AI rankings? And does Brock Lesnar's return to the WWE mean he might also show back up in the UFC at some point?
All that and more in this week's mailbag. To ask a question of your own, hit up @benfowlkesMMA on X or @ben.fowlkes on Threads.
@justlikelasagna: Since there's been a few glaring failures recently, let's try something different. What does a successful ufc retirement look like for a fighter?
I've given this topic a lot of thought and it seems to me there are three good ways to go about it.
First is what we'll call the Khabib Nurmagomedov model. You have an incredible career, make a lot of money, then walk away at the peak of your powers, leaving us all stunned and skeptical. Except you don't totally turn your back on the sport. You become really active as a coach and mentor, letting your stable of fighters carry your legacy forward while also filling the void within through a vicarious joy in their success.
This is trickier than it sounds, not only because step one is becoming one of the best to ever do it, but also because you're basically trying to get sober while still working as a bartender. Simply being in the gym that much is enough to push many people back into the ruthless arms of MMA competition.
Next there's the Georges St-Pierre model. Again, it requires becoming one of the all-time greats and making so much money that you never really have to work again. But then you retire just as your prime is beginning to slip away and return only when your coldly analytical mind tells you that there's a very good opportunity to do something big, and for one night only. The important part here is that, once you've returned and achieved that thing, you immediately disappear again. Sure, it'll make the promoter mad, but screw him. He doesn't care about you and never has.
Lastly, there's the Cole Konrad model. For those who don't know the name, he was the inaugural Bellator heavyweight champ and he held the title from 2010-12, before retiring from the sport undefeated and then getting a regular old job. Never lost a fight. Never competed again. Lives a nice, quiet life in Minnesota, working for a dairy company when last I heard (in this amazing article by our Uncrowned editor, Shaheen Al-Shatti).
The good news about this one is that you don't even have to be an undefeated champ to make it work. Several fighters I know have done this, including my bro Danny Downes (shouts out to Danny Boy) and Brian Stann (shouts out to the greatest living American). The key to this strategy is turning your back on MMA entirely. Don't coach. Don't spar. Don't train fighters. Ideally you shouldn't even watch this sport anymore. As far as you are concerned, that was a whole other life and it might as well have been lived by a different person. Years from now when you're getting a haircut and the barber asks about your cauliflower ear, mumble something about high-school wrestling and leave it at that. Be free.
@shadore66: Is summer the best season? It is right
Summer is trash. Sorry to be the one to tell you. It's too hot (and only getting hotter, in case you haven't noticed). The afternoons are a sweaty mess. If you want to do anything fun or strenuous outside, you basically only have a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours at night to choose from. If you have kids it's even worse, because they're just … there. All the time. Bored and constantly asking what's for lunch. (My official position on this, now that my kids are 12 and 10, is that their lunch is none of my business.)
Now fall? There's a season. A crackling crispness to the air. The sun is still present in our lives but without a sense of murderous malice to it. You can go for a leisurely hike in the afternoon while a hearty stew takes shape in the slow cooker. There's football on TV. Both kinds! It's the absolute best.
Of course, ask me in late February and I'll tell you I long for the slow, sun-scorched days of summer. But right now it's August and my upstairs office is effectively unusable due to heat, so I'm angry and bitter.
@SLefkaditis: Ιs UFC's AI ranking system dead?
How close would it be to Tapology's? (which seems... great?)
It's been a while since we've heard UFC CEO Dana White go off on the UFC's own rankings. The last thing I remember hearing on it was that he'd contacted Mark Zuckerberg, who had agreed to put some of Meta's best people to work on solving the UFC's rankings problem. Since then … nothing.
It's important to note that Tapology's new ranking system is not AI. It's an algorithm they created and tweaked and crafted to automatically rank every UFC fighter based on pre-selected data points. That's different than just asking AI to tell you who the top 15 featherweights are, which is something AI could absolutely do, even if it would mostly just be guessing based on who knows what.
The thing about an AI rankings system, whether it's the UFC partnering with Meta to create it or some other AI company, is how would it really be any different than the UFC matchmakers and executives just coming up with their own list? Maybe they want the veneer of AI so they can continue blaming someone else whenever people get mad about the rankings, but isn't that part of what rankings are for? We're always going to argue over them. It's never going to be perfect and unassailable with unanimous agreement all across the board.
Plus, it's not like the UFC has ever been handcuffed by the rankings. The little numbers next to a fighter's name are mainly useful as a talking point on broadcasts or as a marketing tool on fight posters. It never stops the UFC from making whatever fight it wants, so who cares? Whether it's AI or an algorithm or a man behind the curtain, we're still going to argue and it's still not going to matter that much.
@Jietzsche: Do you have any latest inside info on the UFC's new tv rights negotiations.. which platform does it seem most likely to be?
No inside info, but I was intrigued by today's news that the WWE has struck a deal with ESPN. All those PLEs will move from Peacock to the worldwide leader, though some other WWE content will stick around. It really forces me to decide if it's still worth keeping my Peacock subscription even though now the main thing left for me there is old '30 Rock' episodes. (But my god, they're still so funny every time.)
This means TKO has now done big deals with both Netflix and ESPN, two of the frontrunners for the UFC's new broadcast rights deal. It also means that WWE fans will need no fewer than three different subscriptions to follow all the action. And that, my friends, is likely a preview of what UFC fandom will look like by this time next year.
@NeedXtoseePosts: Do we think it's possible now Brock is now back under the TKO umbrella and WWE are willing to use him -
Lesnar vs Jones in an "exhibition fight" at the White House to save the trouble of drug testing.
Brock Lesnar is almost 50 years old, dog. He didn't really love this sport even in his prime, and he never really got comfortable with being hit in the face. Plus, remember all that stuff I said about how maybe it wouldn't be the best look for the UFC or MMA to headline a White House event with a guy who can be easily seen and heard freaking out on various police videos? Let's just say that pitting him against a dude who's named a whole bunch of times in a federal sex trafficking lawsuit doesn't help.
@Beastin364: Saw your tweet about Martin Buday getting cut off a win. Be honest though do you really want to see him fight again? Me personally I don't think anybody will miss him in ufc
I see your point and I don't totally disagree with you. Buday went 7-1 in the UFC, with a three-fight winning streak to close out his contract (he was not cut, by the way, just not signed to a new deal), but he also wasn't anyone I really looked forward to watching. The same could be said about many (most?) current UFC heavyweights. The fact that he was good enough to beat other fighters the UFC might have had more interest in promoting probably only hurt his chances to stick around. He wouldn't lose but also wouldn't let us have much fun.
My point was, doesn't this highlight the degree to which MMA is not like other sports? A tennis player who wins almost all his matches doesn't get pushed off the tour just because he's boring to watch. Buday is, by pretty much any objective measure, a good heavyweight fighter. Nobody goes 7-1 in the UFC if they suck.
So when the UFC decides, nah, got no use for the guy here, not at any price? And when the public's response is, sure, that's fine by us? I'm just saying, it tells you that this is only a legit sport between when the cage door closes and opens. Outside of that, it has more in common with performing arts or pro wrestling. We should at least be honest with ourselves about that.
@steviefenn: Would the ufc be better served having fewer cards but with more high profile and well known fighters? The build up to fights would be better and the product would be less diluted. Thanks.
I hear this a lot and I think the key phrase is 'better served.' It depends what we think that means. Because I can tell you that, for the UFC and its parent company, it is better served by whatever makes the most money right now in the present moment. And between site fees paid by various city or state governments and broadcast rights fees paid by TV partners like ESPN, the UFC makes money simply by putting on fights. Any fights. Regardless of quality or fan interest or name recognition on the card. It's a volume business right now. No one at the UFC is even thinking about doing less if it would mean making less.
One could argue that it's not great for the long-term health of the business or the sport to keep churning out APEX cards that fans aren't into. And yes, I agree that the overall product could be better if there were fewer events and a higher standard for each one. But that's fan experience we're talking about, and it's not where the UFC's focus is. Not at all.