'I lost that belief': Israel Adesanya and the hardest question in fighting — when is it time to retire?
After another UFC loss, Israel Adesanya is facing pressure to retire from fans and peers alike. But the decision to hang up the gloves is a complicated one for many fighters, as those who've come before him know all too well.
Michael Chiesa can tell you when he knew. It’s a little bit of a secret, something he never dared to speak out loud until now. But with the fighting portion of his professional life now behind him following Saturday's submission win over Niko Price , he can finally say it.
“It was in the Court McGee fight,” Chiesa told Uncrowned. “It was the first time in my life that I held myself back from pulling the trigger and going hard. And it was out of fear.
I was scared of getting hurt and losing. That was the first time I’d ever felt like that in a fight, and it held me back from taking chances that I would have taken when I was younger. ” This was last summer.
Chiesa kept it to himself. He didn’t tell his teammates or his coaches or even his wife. He didn’t know yet exactly what this feeling meant, but he knew it meant something.
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