Few things are as impermanent as a combat sports retirement. Ask just about any fighter in their 20s how long they’ll stay in the game, and they’ll be quick to give you an answer. Many say they’ll be done by their mid-30s, some earlier than that. Just about all of them will tell you that they won’t be fighting by 40. And everybody says they’ll know when it’s time to call it quits.
Talk to those same fighters as their mid-30s actually approach and the assurances seem to drop. Suddenly everyone has a lot more that they feel they need to prove.