Carlos Condit was quickly submitted by Demian Maia at the main event of UFC on FOX 21 on Saturday night (video here). Although there’s no shame about losing on the ground against a BJJ legend, and many people still consider him as a top level fighter, Condit seems to disagree to an extent.
“I don’t know if I have any business fighting at this level anymore,” Condit said after his second straight loss. “I’ve been at this for a really long time.”
“The pressure of being one of the top guys for almost a decade — it’s been awesome, I loved being involved in the sport at the time that I had, got to do for what I loved for a living for a long time. But I don’t know man. I don’t know if I belong here anymore.”
“Honestly, it’s definitely been in the back of my mind for a while now,” he said. “It’s been a long career.”
Condit elaborated a little when asked if these are statements stemming from gauging his skill level or passion for the sport.
“Some aspects I really am passionate about. I love the preparation, I trained really hard for this camp. Really hard,” he said. “Honestly, I’ve had a tough career with a lot of fights, and taken a lot of punishment. And you know, I don’t know if I can continue to take shots, honestly.”
Condit mentioned retiring from the sport after his controversial title loss to Robbie Lawler, which had most people scoring it for him, and he did the same now.
“I think there comes a point to every fighter’s career that they kind of have to question how long they will continue do that. I have been doing that for a while,” he said. “It wasn’t my night tonight. I don’t know if that’s going to be the swan song for me. Hopefully not. I would hate to go out on a loss like that. I would at least wanted to have gotten in there and put on an exciting show like I usually do.”
“I don’t know what’s in the cards, but I’m leaning towards possibly being done.”
Condit says he has been thinking about hanging it up for quite a while now. Perhaps that was going through his head as he took a minute to himself before getting up after the submission.
Condit has had an excellent 14-year career that saw him win the WEC and interim UFC championships, along with numerous unforgettable contests through out the years. That’s set in stone, and the 32-year-old will surely be remembered as a fan-favorite who always delivered with exciting bouts. If this was indeed the last time we see him though, I personally can’t help but think about all the what if’s, and how everything would’ve been different had he gotten that deserved title win earlier this year.
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