Strickland urged young people not to engage in MMA

UFC middleweight champion American Sean Strickland advises young fighters to forget about mixed martial arts if there is an opportunity to do something else.

“One day a guy came up to me and said: “My son is 17 years old and he does MMA. He wants to become a fighter. Are there any recommendations?“

I told him, “Don’t do this.” He was like, “What do you mean?” To which I responded, “You’re getting into Dana White’s series, what’s waiting for you there?” The guys make $5,000 if they lose.” He’s like, “Damn.” I say, ‘If the guy loses, guess what? He won't make it to the UFC." So, you could have devoted your life to some other business, but you decided to train and participate in battles.

Okay, let's imagine that you have achieved success and the UFC has signed a contract with you. What happens when they sign a regular guy? They receive a contract for $10 thousand. You signed a contract, fight and get 10 thousand dollars for the fight. You have spent your entire life working towards your goal. Now you've reached it, wear the UFC logo and all that. Carry out 4 battles, of which two are defeats. Maybe these are boring fights. As a result, there is no career growth, since you receive approximately the same contract or the organization removes you. It turns out that you will earn $60 thousand in total over your entire career. But you have no choice because you cannot be a part-time fighter. You must work full time to show results.

As a result, the 24-year-old man looks at himself in the mirror and says: “I have devoted my entire adult life to this sport, I have earned from 24 to 60 thousand dollars. What should I do now? “Go work as a kickboxing coach,” Sherdog quotes Strickand.