Court McGee plans on calling it a career on Saturday night after his fight at UFC 332 is over but realistically that’s the last thing on his mind.
While the 41-year-old veteran was well aware that retirement was going to be the main narrative heading into his fight, he’s learned through painful experience to always keep focused on what’s directly in front of him. His final fight might just be a couple of days away but McGee still has a lot to handle before he hopefully gets his hand raised one final time in the octagon.
“Here’s the thing in my mind, everybody says their retirement or whatever — I’m not focused too much on retirement or what’s after,” McGee told MMA Fighting. “I’ve been in this game a long time. I don’t ever think past [what’s directly in front of me]. I’ve still got to make weight. There’s still so much to do before I step in the cage.
“So much shit can happen by the time that fight happens but I’m confident in my ability. I’m confident in my preparation. I trained as goddamn hard as any fight I’ve ever had before. Brutal conditioning sessions. I have training partners and teammates, I put in the time, I put in the rounds.”
The same goes for McGee’s preparation for the upcoming fight.
While some athletes planning on retirement have talked about “leaving it all in the cage” or even trying new moves for the first time simply because they knew there was no tomorrow, that’s just not in McGee’s plans for his final fight.
Instead, McGee treated his training camp and strategy for the fight just like any other. He just knows at the end of it all he plans on hanging up his gloves for good but that’s the only real difference between this fight and any other.
“Business as usual,” McGee said. “I have a structure, I have a process that I go through. I have structured practices and then obviously I bounce ideas off my coaches and cornermen and training partners. We had eight guys fight three weeks ago. This week we had two fight. A lot of people peaking. The training’s been tough.”
