Professional fighters put their personal health on the line and sacrifice spending time with their families for the hope of one day clinching a gold belt about their waist. For UFC middleweight Brian Stann, those two things made him decide that it was time to hang up his gloves.
Stann announced on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour on MMAFighting.com Thursday that he was retiring and exiting the octagon for good.
“It’s the best thing for me and more importantly my family right now that I no longer continue fighting,” Stann told Helwani. “As far as competing anymore, as sad as it makes me, it’s not the best thing for me as a husband and father.”
Stann’s training was taking away family time for the soon-to-be father of three.
“At only 32-years-old it has gotten harder for me to stay healthy for training camps,” Stann said. “It’s taken a toll on my body and for me to continue competing at the level that I fight at…I think I would have to completely change, my training situation and I just can’t do that.
“I have my third child on the way and going away to Albuquerque, New Mexico for two months at a time to train for fights just isn’t possible for my family situation.”
With his family still in mind, the effects of repeated blows to the head were also a concern for Stann, who was also a standout football player at Navy.
“If you look at my life I’ve been getting hit in the head since I was in second grade playing football,” Stann said. “I’m now 32 years old, that’s a long time. And there’s only so long you can only roll the dice and be successful and for me, the risk is not worth it.”
Stann (12-6 MMA, 6-5 UFC) has had a rough time of late. In his last four octagon appearances, Stann is only 1-3 including consecutive losses to Wanderlei Silva and Michael Bisping.
Stann said the Wanderlei Silva loss in particular, a skull-rattling first-round knockout, was the proverbial nail in the coffin for his decision to retire. Although he also told Helwani in the interview that if he had defeated Silva he would probably still be fighting.
“All-American” may be done fighting in the cage but that doesn’t mean he’s done with the sport. Stann stated he still wants to be a part of the UFC in any way he can.
For Helwani’s full interview with Stann click here to view it on livestream.
Eric Smith is an MMA and fantasy football contributor with Craveonline.com. Follow him on twitter or @EricSmith_SP or email him at ejmith7@asu.edu.
Photo Credit: Getty
