Carlos Condit: ‘I Still Love This Game, But Maybe My Time Has Passed’
For the past few years now, Carlos Condit has seemed to teeter on the brink of retirement.
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“Post choke out, where the f—k am I , WTF happened, feeling kinda warm and fuzzy , hope I didn't just piss my shorts on live TV , thousand yard stare,” he wrote. “I've posted plenty of pictures looking like a badass. Triumphant and powerful... But here's the flip side, crumpled and weak in defeat. Rough day at the office.
“F—k it though, I had fun. I trained my ass off and I came to
fight. This is what leaving it all out there looked like on
Saturday. Much respect to my opponent and his team. Thank you for
taking the fight on short notice. Congratulations and best of luck
in the future.
“I don't know what's next guys... I still love this game, and most days I still feel that fire, I absolutely love what it do, but maybe my time has passed. I don't know the answer. This is what I know, this is my passion. I will never stop training, and If that leads me back to the the Octagon, you know I'll try to make it bloody for ya.
“Right now I'm looking forward to summer shenanigans with my sons and to expanding [Hundred Hands Coffee].”
The Jackson-Wink MMA standout first pondered the end of his career following a narrow split-decision defeat to Robbie Lawler in a title bout at UFC 195 in January 2016. Many observers thought Condit should have been crowned champion that night.
“I’ve been at this for a long time, over 40 professional MMA fights,” Condit said that night. “I came up short tonight. I don’t know. Tonight was kind of a do-or-die moment for my career. I was all in. If I got that strap I was gonna keep fighting. If I didn’t, like I didn’t, I have to see if I can continue to do this.”
Condit’s return at UFC on Fox 21 later that year prompted similar thoughts, as the New Mexico native tapped out to a rear-naked choke just 1:52 into the opening stanza.
“I don’t know if I have any business fighting at this level any more,” he said following the loss to Maia. “I’ve been at this for a really long time. The pressure of kind of being one of the top guys for almost a decade…it’s been awesome. I’ve loved being involved in the sport at the time that I have. I’ve gotten to do what I love for a living for a long period of time. I don’t know if I belong here anymore. We’ll see.”
Condit then took a 16-month hiatus before returning to action at UFC 219, where he dropped a unanimous decision to Neil Magny. He was supposed to face Matt Brown at UFC on Fox 29 before Oliveira stepped in to replace the injured Brown on short notice. Condit hasn’t won a fight in the Octagon since a second round stoppage of Thiago Alves at UFC Fight Night 67 on May 30, 2015.
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