Cholish estimates that after training costs, his paycheck from last night’s fight wasn’t enough to break even. Photo courtesy of his Twitter page.

No matter how gloriously cheesy the TapouT commercials try to make it look, life as a fighter is far from easy. Training full-time is extremely taxing on your body, promoters and fellow fighters alike can be shady, unpleasant individuals, sponsors try to stiff you, and because the pay involved is so low for most fighters, it’s all essentially just for the glory of saying you’re better at a sport than the guy across from you.

That’s why – in many ways – it should come as little surprise that UFC Lightweight also-ran John Cholish is walking away from the sport after his loss to Gleison Tibau during last night’s UFC on FX 8.

If you find yourself wondering who John Cholish is, you’re far from alone. After compiling a 7-1 record in the minor leagues – including a victory on the undercard of Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Silva – the Renzo Gracie product made his UFC debut at UFC 140, where he defeated Mitch Clarke by second round TKO. This would be the final victory of his career, as Cholish would then drop a decision to Danny Castillo during the UFC on FOX 3 undercard, lose to Gleison Tibau last night and retire from the sport. Another small fish in a big pond, whose career barely made a splash.

Perhaps fittingly, Cholish’s retirement may very well end up being the most significant part of his career. Cholish – who announced his intent to retire on Twitter shortly before the his fight – made it clear while speaking with MMAJunkie.com that the low paychecks that fighters in his position earn were his primary motivation for hanging up the gloves. Via MMAJunkie:

(Undeniable proof that Stefan Struve is a reptilian shape-shifter. / Photo via Getty Images)

In the world of combat sports, there’s nothing sadder than a fighter who doesn’t know when to quit — who continues to risk his body and brain for diminishing paychecks, long after the fight business has chewed him up and spat him out. So in way, the recent news of Christian Morecraft’s retirement should be considered a happy ending, because at least he won’t end up a penniless vegetable. It’s the little victories, folks.

After kicking off his career with six consecutive first-round victories competing in Massachusetts for Reality Fighting and CFX, Christian Morecraft entered the UFC in 2010, where the 26-year-old heavyweight prospect went 1-3, including a submission victory over Sean McCorkle, and knockout losses against Stefan Struve, Matt Mitrione, and Pat Barry. Morecraft’s slugfest against Barry picked up Fight of the Night honors at UFC on FX 1, but he never returned to the Octagon. In fact the last bit of news we heard about him was when he picked up a drunk driving charge in September.

Yesterday, Morecraft posted the following on his Facebook page:

(And when I say “bitch,” I mean it in the politest sense of the word possible.)

*takes a seat in rocking chair, lights up corn cob pipe*

You know, kids, there used to be a time when words like “retirement,” “marriage,” and “my totally real dead girlfriend” used to mean something. Perhaps it was just a simpler time back then, but when a man (or a woman that had somehow shoehorned her way into an office environment) gathered his co-employees around and announced that he was hanging it up, it was meant to be permanent. Bill Russell never came back. Vince Lombardi never came back. Pete Maravich tried to come back and dropped dead on the spot. Retirement was supposed to be a one way street, paved with early bird discounts, cheap medications, and eventually death. Sweet, sweet death. But then Muhammed Ali had to go and ruin everything.

*sets down pipe to chase Jehovah’s Witnesses down sidewalk*

In the past couple years, we’ve seen such notable fighters as Jamie Varner, Matt Hamill, and Chris Lytle announce their retirement from MMA. Of those three, the first two have already returned to the sport, and the latter has suggested that he would fight again under the right circumstances. And now, you can add UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz to the list of fighters who feel they might have called it a career a bit early. In an interview with BloodyElbow, Ortiz stated that he would be open to the idea of coming out of retirement, but only once all of the injuries that have plagued his MMA career since ever were finally dealt with:

Right now, I’m only four weeks out of neck surgery, and then I have to get the ACL surgery. I still need to recover from that before I start thinking about anything, and if I’ll compete again. You never know, I may come out of retirement. It’s all about how my body recovers.

(Godspeed, you strange, beautiful warrior. / Photo via Heavy)

His gritty decision loss to Forrest Griffin at the first TUF Finale helped turn the UFC’s fortunes around, and his most recent fight against Anderson Silva saved UFC 153 from possible extinction. The American Psycho shed his blood for the good of the sport, and now he’s gone.

It was confirmed yesterday that Stephan Bonnar will be retiring from MMA following an 11-year career, including a 15-fight stretch in the UFC where he went 8-7. It’s likely that he’ll be remembered more for his defeats than his victories — besides the aforementioned losses to Griffin and Silva, Bonnar also has the dubious honor of being an early victim of Lyoto Machida, a member of Jon Jones’s spinning-back-elbow highlight reel, and the last person to be defeated by Mark Coleman (ouch).

Still, it was a joy to watch him compete, and when he won, it was a triumph. I know it sounds cliched and pandering to talk about “heart,” “warrior spirit,” and “never-say-die attitude” when you’re discussing a fighter who was never able to come near a title belt, but in Bonnar’s case, those terms genuinely apply. He was one of the good guys, and his generosity with fans even extended to two-bit MMA blogs like ours.

CagePotato.com would like to wish Stephan Bonnar the best of luck on his future endeavors, and thank him for the years of entertainment he’s given us in the UFC. Please share your favorite Stephan Bonnar moment in the comments section, and check out the full video of Bonnar vs. Griffin 1 after the jump.

(“One way or another, you *will* be able to dodge bullets like Keanu by the time this is over.”) 

You may or may not be aware of this, but tucked away on the preliminary card of the upcoming UFC on FUEL 5: Struve vs. Miocic card that noone can seem to stop talking about was the long awaited UFC debut of a Swedish kickboxing legend by the name of Jorgen Kruth. A three time K-1 champion and two time World Muay Thai Council Super Heavyweight Muay Thai World Champion, Kruth scored victories over fellow kickboxing champions Ray Sefo, Vitali Akhramenko, and Bob “Bitch Tits” Sapp before transitioning to MMA in 2009. He was successful in all of his first five contests, with none of his victories making it out of the first round.

After being forced to pull out from his originally scheduled debut against Cyrille Diabate at UFC on FUEL 2 due to a rib injury, Kruth was expected to grace the octagon for the first time against Brazilian body shot specialist Fabio Maldonado at the September 29th-scheduled event. However, in what may very well be an unprecedented move for a debuting UFC fighter, Kruth has actually retired from MMA less than three weeks out from his fight. The Swede made the announcement earlier today to the Swedish newspaper Expressen (as transcribed by MMAViking, appropriately enough), stating “…the last few years I have felt that I have not been there enough for my son, it’s been tough.”

After the jump: More comments from Kruth explaining his decision, and a video of him beating the shit out of Bob Sapp in a kickboxing match. And by beating the shit out of him, we mean kneeing him into submission. As he was falling back. With one of the first strikes he threw.

And yet another audience went home wondering why in the hell they passed up a trip to the zoo for that bullshit.

(Sonnen tries to remain calm while scanning for the nearest exit at the UFC 148 pre-fight press conference.) 

How the high and mighty have fallen, Potato Nation.

Just a few days after coming up short (again) against Anderson Silva at UFC 148, the rumors and speculations of what lies in store for middleweight contender Chael Sonnen have already begun to take on a life of its own. And at the forefront of those rumors, is the possibility that we may never see perhaps the greatest fight-hyper in the biz in the octagon again. Now, we aren’t normally quick to buy into retirement rumors that come in the immediate aftermath of a fight, even when they are coming from the fighters themselves. Because, as was the case for B.J. Penn and Jamie Varner, these supposed “retirements” were more or less a way of coping with the frustration that comes with of a string of losses (or in Sonnen’s case, a particularly hard loss to swallow), and were over before most of us compile a “Best of” list for either man. The jury is still out on how long Nick Diaz will hold out, but we’re guessing it will likely coincide with his recent suspension.

But regardless of the semi-thesis statement we’ve just laid before you, the head grappling coach at Xtreme Couture, Neil Melanson, feels that we may have seen the last of Sonnen for now. Melanson took over Sonnen’s UFC 148 training camp after Scott McQuary, Sonnen’s longtime head coach, suffered a heart attack a couple months back, and recently sat down with the ironically-titled Verbal Submission Radio to discuss Sonnen’s future in the sport:

Any time you’re a part of training camp or you’re friends with somebody and they lose, you just worry about them like, how are they gonna handle it mentally? Are they gonna come back from this? You know, I don’t know what Chael’s plans are, but I got a feeling he’s done fighting. I don’t know. I’ve just got a feeling he’s done. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think he was serious when he said, ‘If you beat me, I will leave forever,’ and there’s a very good chance of that.

(Inferior heavyweight contender, or marketing genius?!) 

Perhaps we’re in the minority here, but we’re getting pretty God damn sick of mixed martial artists throwing around the word “retirement” like Kim Kardashian throws around the word “marriage.” Because retirement, like marriage, is a sacred institution, and nowadays it seems as if every other fighter is taking a big, steaming turd on what was once holy ground. In the past year alone, both Jamie Varner and more recently B.J. Penn have retired, only to come out of said retirement before anyone could even assess their retirement in the first place. Though the jury is still out on how long Nick Diaz and Jason Miller will be out of action, it’s looking like you can add none other than former heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar to the former list, as it has been reported by co-Host of Tough Talk on wrestlingobserver.com, Mike Sawyer, that Lesnar will return to the UFC within the year. He broke the news over his Twitter:

Mike Sawyer ?@TOUGHTALKMMA
Had an interesting conversation with someone VERY close to all the Brock Lesnar stuff. He is fighting THIS YEAR in UFC & not Frank Mir…

Mike Sawyer ?@TOUGHTALKMMA
plans change all the time, but the name I was told isn’t Roy.

Brian ?@FrontRowBrian
If it’s not Mir fighting Lesnar in UFC later this year as @TOUGHTALKMMA reports, who is it? @roynelsonmma? @stefanstruve? @ShaneCarwin II?

Mike Sawyer ?@TOUGHTALKMMA
one of the above.

For those of you with the memory capacity of Sammy Jankis, Lesnar announced his retirement from the sport following his first round TKO loss to Alistair Overeem at UFC 141. UFC 141 was a mere six months ago.

(John Einemo, the only man to ever truly smell what The Rock was cookin’.)

Norwegian news site VG.no is reporting that former UFC heavyweight John Olav Einemo has decided to call it a career after being cut from the promotion following his loss to Mike Russow at UFC on Fox 2.

Although Einemo told reporters that the UFC had left the proverbial door open for his return if he was able to put a couple wins together in smaller promotions, Einemo felt that the time he had to spend away from his family during the training process was simply too much to handle. Apparently his wife and kids didn’t drive him crazy. For those of you who are suddenly overwhelmed with panic as to when you’ll see J.O.E again, fret not, for he plans to help build upon Norway’s ever-growing MMA scene as a coach somewhere down the line.

Nevermind, this is likely the last we’ll see of Einemo before the trolls get him.

(“I refuse to answer on the grounds that I might incriminate myself.” PicProps: Connect.in.com)

The simple fact that MMA Fighting.com got stuck talking to Randy Couture’s attorney/manager this week instead of the man himself is probably very telling about what’s going on in Couture’s world these days. Most fighters can barely scrape it together to hire a halfway-legitimate agent or manger (again, just having your girlfriend do it doesn’t count), while “The Natural” is able to dispatch this guy Sam Spira, who we assume has graduated not only from college but then took the LSAT, then graduated from law school, then passed the bar in Nevada. When you consider the sad truth that a lot of fighters don’t even know a lawyer – and no, War Machine, your public defender doesn’t qualify — that’s pretty pimp.

Especially if you can send him out to handle the media obligations you don’t want to do yourself. Hence, we actually kind of believe Spira when he tells AOL on Wednesday that it’s sort of 50-50 whether the 47-year-old Couture will be too busy and too famous trying to balance his new career as an actor (and entertaining "other opportunities") ever to compete in MMA again.

(Dana may want to skip right to dessert.)

During a media scrum following today’s UFC 116 pre-fight press conference, UFC president Dana White made his feelings about his longtime friend Chuck Liddell continuing to compete in the Octagon crystal clear.

"He’ll never fight in the UFC again. Can Chuck Liddell still make money? Could I make money off of Chuck Liddell? Yes. I don’t want that money. I don’t want to make that kind of money," White asserted. "I’m not interested in that. He won’t do it again. He cannot do it again. It will not happen again."

So remember that “war” that UFC president Dana White promised to wage if Chuck Liddell opted not to retire after losing to “Shogun” Rua at UFC 97?  Liddell has yet to officially call it quits, though he also hasn’t expressed any overwhelming desire to fight again, but this war increasingly seems like it’s between White and Liddell’s trainer, John Hackleman — not Liddell himself.  After Hackleman pointed out some of the obvious problems with White trying to make life decisions for another autonomous human being, White fired back in a talk with Sherdog:

“Obviously, John Hackleman didn’t pay his house off yet. John Hackleman needs some money, because anybody who claims they care about Chuck Liddell even a little bit would not be making these f–king statements. …He’s never been a decision-maker in Chuck’s career. I can tell you this: He didn’t make Chuck Liddell. Chuck Liddell made John Hackleman.  How many great, talented guys do you see coming out of John Hackleman’s place?  He’s no Greg Jackson. He’s no Mark DellaGrotte. He’s no American Top Team. He’s not one of the great camps. Chuck Liddell made him.”