It’s back to Wall Street for John Cholish. For good.
The New York City energy trader announced on Twitter before his fight in Jaragua do Sul, Brazil on Saturday night with Gleison Tibau that he would retire from the UFC afterward – “win, lose, or draw.”
He fell to Tibau by submission in the second round and stood by his previous statement. Cholish is done fighting for now.
“I’m fortunate enough that I have a job that provides for me really well,” he told MMAjunkie.com. “I give a lot of these guys credit that fight at this level. I think they could be compensated much better based on the income that the UFC takes in. Fortunately, I can just walk away and I’m OK with it. By no means do I mean it disrespectfully toward any other fighters because I think they do a great job. But hopefully Zuffa and the UFC will start paying them a little better.”
Cholish, 29, made just $6,000 in his previous fight last May. The salaries will not be announced for Saturday night’s UFC on FX 8 card, because that is not required in Brazil. In his day job, Cholish is a junior partner at Beacon Energy Solutions in Manhattan. He didn’t need the money, but fought 11 professional MMA fights with eight wins. Cholish went 1-2 in the UFC.
“I fight because I love it,” Cholish told The Post last week. “MMA is different. You really have to have a passion for it. It’s very dangerous. People try to say it’s gotten safer and it has. But there’s still a lot of injuries.”
Cholish, who lives in Long Island City and is originally from New Jersey, still plans on training at Renzo Gracie Academy in Chelsea. It just doesn’t make sense financially for him to continue fighting. He told MMAjunkie.com that with expenses to get down to Brazil, he might not even break even by taking the bout.
“At the end of the day, it’s hard,” he said. “I have great coaches that take time off and travel. They deserve money, as well. To be completely honest, on a fight like this, I’m losing money to come down here. Flights, hotel rooms, food – and that doesn’t even cover the cost of the time I have to pay for my coaches for training. It’s funny because people talk about the fighters, but at the same time there’s camps and coaches behind the fighters that you don’t even see. So if a fighter is having a tough time making ends meet, how do you think his coaches are doing?”
Gracie told The Post that he felt like Cholish could make a run in the lightweight division, because of his unbridled passion, wrestling ability and jiu-jitsu — even despite not training full time like just about every other UFC fighter.
“He doesn’t take coffee breaks,” Gracie said. “He takes jiu-jitsu breaks.”
But, with the age of 30 creeping up, there was no reason for Cholish to continue putting his body on the line for such meager pay.
Cholish called for MMA fighters to unionize, because they are not compensated enough. He speculated that maybe it could happen if UFC parent company Zuffa ever went public.
The Cornell graduate doesn’t plan on fighting that battle, though. And he’s done competing in the Octagon, too. At least for now.
“I love mixed martial arts,” he said. “I love training. … Maybe one day I’ll compete again. I don’t know. We’ll see. It’s been a really cool experience, a fun ride. I have no regrets.”