Corey Anderson knows he must build for the future as being a professional mixed martial artist doesn’t pay the bills forever.
At the age of 29, Anderson finds himself at the 6th spot on the official Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) light heavyweight rankings. He may be just one win away from receiving a title opportunity. While you’d expect someone in Anderson’s position to prepare for perhaps another 10 years of competition, that isn’t the case here.
Corey Anderson Already Has Retirement Plans
Anderson recently appeared on ESPN’s Ariel Helwani MMA Show. During his appearance, Anderson revealed that he never planned to stick around MMA for long and he’s already got plans to make an exit (via MMA Weekly):
“When I started at 23, I said that by 31 I wanted to be done. It was more of my mom pushing on me because she hates it, but now I’m at the point where I’m going to have a family and all of that. I see fighters, I know guys in it with their families. They’re away from home. And the damage to the brain. I know what it does to the body. I don’t want that. I’ve already got my exit plan and business plan, everything going. I’ve already got a job set up and waiting and everything. I’ve got a business degree. I never wanted to be a fighter. All of my fight money has been saved. I don’t spend my fight money. I work and teach classes to pay bills, so the plan is when I walk away I’m not going to be hurting and have to go back and fight. I can start my other ventures and just veer off and be there for my family, my wife and my kids and there for the more kids that we’re going to have.”
Should more fighters take a similar approach with their plans post-MMA?
