Jonathan Brookins Just Doesn’t Want It Anymore; Ponders Retirement

“It’s not hard to make a career in the UFC. If you really want it, you can make it happen. I think I just talked myself of really wanting it. I don’t know if I talked myself out of it or if I really don’t want it anymore. That made it tough to keep going and to fight last weekend. I didn’t really have much fight left in me. I kind of hit a dead end.

I definitely had my mind on other things I wanted to do and pursue. I just stopped believing in the fight business and stopped believing in what it was I was even doing. I just didn’t quite understand. There wasn’t much that I wanted about that (Poirier) fight…This quest to be a fighter has gotten to be frivolous, to be the wrong pursuit. I know it can be pursued the right way, but I know I’m not anywhere close to it. I’m not really down to live this temporary, right-now way of life…

Before the fight I came in a little bit overweight. Mostly because I was bounding around a lot – living in Oregon then New York then Montreal. But everything was real sporadic. So I was cutting weight, and I went to a bikram yoga class, something I do all the time. This was Wednesday, and the weigh-in was Friday. I started to get real dizzy after running that morning and sitting in a salt bath and then the yoga class. I got dizzy like I was going to pass out. By the end of the class, I was cramping up. My feet were cramping. By the end of the class I think I hit severe dehydration. My legs cramped up really bad. I couldn’t move. I was exhausted, like I was going to die. My neck, back, and chest all cramped up. I felt tired and weak. I started throwing up all night and was real sick.

I thought about quitting the fight. I was dehydrated, but I still had six or seven pounds to lose. Everything was all off. So I was asking myself, “What do you really want out of this experience?” And all I could think about was going to India. You already know you ****** your body up; there’s no way you’re going to recover fully in just a couple of days. Why would I go ahead with the fight instead of asking to reschedule? Then I thought about going to India in January. That was loud and clear.

At the weigh-ins, I could see myself on the Jumbotron. I was like, “**** man, you look kind of pathetic. You don’t look like you’re ready to fight; you look skinny.” The kid (Poirier) walks up to me after the weigh-ins and gets in my face and says, “I want it more than you.” All tough guy: “I want it more than you, bro.” I was like, “What the ****? How does this kid know he wanted it more than me?” It was an interesting thing to say but it was really true. It was the weirdest true ****-talking I’d ever heard in my life. Usually people just talk **** and you’ve got a rebuttal. That was the first time it really made me think.”

http://www.cagepotato.com/jonathan-brookins-just-doesnt-want-it-anymore-former-tuf-winner-ponders-retirement-after-poirier-fight/

you can read the whole thing. i just bold certain things

didnt think he was the quitting type

* Edited at 12.20.2012, 4:14 PM ET *

I wish Brookins nothing but the best. 

@Ronwah, on his season of TUF he was the quiet guy, you literally rarely heard him ever. But he was a beast on the show. GSP said from like the third episode..

"Jonathan Brookins is my secret weapon" 

I don't know why I missed that season, I normally have them on series record. Maybe this was the year TUF was being bounced around on the schedule or something?