One of the most promising young fighters in MMA is hanging up his gloves – to be an agricultural commodities trader.
Undefeated Bellator heavyweight champion Cole Konrad, a former training partner of Brock Lesnar, is retiring from the cage at the age of 28, the company announced Thursday. Konrad was a two-time wrestling national champion at the University of Minnesota and made a seamless transition to MMA, going 9-0 in just over two years.
Konrad said MMA was “never really my passion,” and agricultural trading has been his family’s business for generations. Konrad will specialize in dairy products.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my time inside the Bellator cage, but having the consistency and stability of going to the office every day is something that just made sense to me,” Konrad said in a statement.
Konrad was a four-time All-American at Minnesota and three-time Big Ten champion. In his MMA career, he had defeated the likes of Paul Buentello, Eric Prindle and Neil Grove. In his latest two victories, against Prindle and Buentello, his striking looked like it was catching up to his exceptional wrestling ability.
“There are very few fighters in MMA who can completely control a fight like Cole Konrad could,” Bellator chairman and CEO Bjorn Rebney said in a statement.
This news is a terrible loss for the sport. Konrad wasn’t the most exciting fighter, but with his wrestling ability he could compete with almost any other heavyweight in the world. At 28, he was only getting better – potentially a future superstar. There are so few of those his size in MMA.
Konrad likely wanted the stability as he said, but it’s hard to believe this wasn’t also a financial decision. This just shows that the money isn’t quite there yet in MMA, especially outside of the UFC. It might have been years until Konrad was making the kind of salary that he’ll probably get right away in agricultural commodities.