Krzysztof Soszynski doesn't remember much about the night after his nasty KO loss to Igor Pokrajac. So when he watched Monday's UFC 141 video blog, he got to be surprised along with the rest of us to hear about his decision to retire. And while he's backing away from the finality of the statement now that his eggs are slightly less scrambled, that doesn't mean walking away is off the table:
"The knockout has nothing to do with anything," he said. "I've been dealing with a lot of injuries. Ever since UFC 110 in Austrailia with that crazy war with Stephan Bonnar, my body has not been the same. Not even close. I don't think I've ever fought close to 70 percent since that first fight with Bonnar. The retirement thing has been on my mind for a little while, only because I can't train the way I want to train because of all these injuries.
"I have to go see my doctor again this week. I have to see if I need any more surgeries, and it's just been really rough, mentally. I've trained 15 weeks for my camps, and I've pushed my body to the limit, but there's no security. It's myself, too. I started in the sport really late. I don't have those kind of skills that the top fighters do where I can make it in the top-five, top-10, and start making $50,000, $60,000 and $70,000 per fight. I'm in the lower echelon when it comes to the money the UFC gives out to the fighters, and it's tough to survive with that kind of money. I have to supplement my income. I have to work other jobs. So moving on from MMA is something that's been on my mind for the last little bit."
Last time we got a peek at the paysheets, K-Soz was making 10k/10k at UFC 116 and managed to nab Fight of the Night honors for 75k. Even without bonuses, 3 fights a year plus sponsor money ain't the worst amount of scratch a fighter can make. But it's never too early to start thinking about your career post-UFC, especially when your body is starting to betray you and you're finding yourself on the wrong end of knockouts against up and comers.
Source: http://www.fightlinker.com/the-soz-forgot-he-announced-his-retirement
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