“I had a guy come up to me recently and say, ‘My son is 17 years old, he’s training and wants to be a fighter. Can you give him any advice?’ and I said, ‘Yeah – don’t do it,'” the American said in a video posted on social media. “He was like, ‘What do you mean?’ and I was like, ‘Let me explain to you, sir, the joy of being an MMA fighter'”
“You’ve seen fighters Contender Series? How much do you think they make? Five thousand plus five thousand. If they lose, it’s only five, and they don’t get into the UFC. And even if they get lucky and they get into the UFC, they get signed for ten plus ten. You’ve worked your whole life for this one goal, and then you make the score 2-2 in the UFC, and maybe you get fired for boring fights. Then you make $60,000 dollars for your entire career and you have no other prospects because you can’t be a part-time fighter at that level. You have to plow the gym full-time.”
“So you’re a 24-year-old man who looks at himself in the mirror and says, ‘I’ve been doing this all my life and I’ve made $24,000 or $60,000. What am I going to do now?’ Go and teach cardio kickboxing. I love the UFC, and I probably make more money in the UFC than I ever imagined. I could categorize myself as a rich person, which still shocks me, but they show you the UFC logo and you sell your soul for it. You see those three big letters and you’re willing to sell your soul for it, man.”
Earlier last month, Sean Strickland scored a sensational win by unanimous decision over Israel Adesanya to take the UFC middleweight championship belt from him, and the American’s next opponent should be Chechnya native Khamzat Chimaev, ranked ninth in the division.