UFC veteran summit provides answers for fighters’ future

Longtime UFC welterweight contender Carlos Condit is still unsure about whether he will continue fighting or retire as he hinted was a strong possibility following his loss to Demian Maia in August.

Regardless of whether he has fought for the last time or still has a title run in him at age 32, Condit knows it is a good time to start planning for his future.

He was paying close attention on Friday and Saturday when he joined a group of about 20 fighters for the UFC’s veteran summit at Red Rock Resort.

“(The presenters) were able to verbalize a lot of thoughts I had in my head and give us some tangible lessons as far as moving forward and how we can prepare for the next phase of our lives,” he said of the event. “I’m not sure (if I’m going to retire). I haven’t made a hard decision on that. But all of us, no matter what point of our career we’re at, need to start thinking about putting things together for the rest of our lives.

“The next phase should be considered long before you retire. You have to have a plan in place because it could happen unexpectedly.”

That was a point made by Forrest Griffin, a former light heavyweight champion and Hall of Famer who now works for the organization.

He said by no means is the UFC trying to tell any of the invited fighters the end of their career is near. But in Griffin’s case, he was forced to retire due to recurring injuries when he still planned on competing for at least another year or two.

Griffin, who is also an accomplished author, said athletes need to have a plan for their next step whether that’s in six months or six years.

“The idea is just at every point, you need to be thinking about what you’re going to do next in life and that’s just the modern world,’” he said. “People don’t just get into a job and work 30 or 40 years for the same job and retire. That’s not the reality of the corporate world today. People are always out there looking for what’s around, checking LinkedIn and whatnot, just exploring their options. We want to help these guys be as prepared as possible.”

Several former athletes from around the sports world were presenters.

Bart Scott, an analyst for CBS and a former linebacker with the Jets and Ravens, said he is passionate about sharing some of what he’s learned.

“As athletes, we’re always thinking we’re invincible. But we have to prepare for the end even at the beginning,” he said. “That’s a tough process. An athlete dies two deaths. The natural one and the one where he has to move on and transition from his career and that can be a tough process. But if you prepare for that transition, you can be ready for it and you can have a better quality of life.”

Scott, who is a regular on the speaking circuit through his work with Morgan Stanley Global Sports & Entertainment, feels the message might resonate best coming from former athletes.

“It’s not a suit. It’s not Wall Street coming to you,’ he said. “I’ve lived it. I may be in a different phase of my life, but at some point they’ll catch up and be in the same point. It might be like when you go to college and your parents aren’t around anymore, but something they may have told you or taught you kind of serves as guidance. My words may not resonate as strong now, but when you have to make some of those decisions and it comes down to, ‘What’s next?’ My words will pop in their head. I make sure of it.”

The UFC’s Director of Athlete Development, James Kimball, said the summit is just another resource the organization is providing its fighters. After several years of hosting yearly summits for the entire roster to cover a wide variety of issues, the organization decided it was more effective to convene smaller groups with a more narrow focus.

The UFC will take another step forward when it opens the UFC Athlete Health and Performance Center at its new headquarters in Las Vegas in 2017, where many of these things can be done in-house.

“At the veteran’s summit, we’re educating them on things like financial management, entrepreneurship, and impacting the community,” Kimball said. “Hopefully they find one of those niches and take away something from that to help them transition out of their UFC careers and hopefully they can benefit from these two days somewhere down the road.”

Tom Lawlor, Sara McMann and Joe Lauzon were also among the group of veterans fighters who attended the summit.