Krause: Fighting is a drug, and hard to quit, and dangerous
James Krause: “I see these guys, and they can’t even tie their damn shoes. They can’t even form complete sentences sometimes. I don’t want to be that guy.”
UFC lightweight and sometime welterweight James Krause is 25-7 and 32 years old. He started in the UFC 2-3, but has now put together a four-fight win streak. He fights Warlley Alves at UFC Fight Night 135 on Saturday, and while he is not considering retirement yet, he knows that fighting in dangerous, and that the danger rises dramatically with age.
I see some of these guys, the older guys that couldn’t quit the sport, they couldn’t quit the drug, said Krause to Mike Bohn and John Morgan for MMAjunkie. I see these guys, and they can’t even tie their damn shoes. They can’t even form complete sentences sometimes. I don’t want to be that guy. I want to be the guy that quits one fight too early than one fight too late.”
It’s the easiest money I’ve ever made in my life. You have to train really hard and all that stuff, but I train hard anyway. … Your MMA fighters typically come from low-income families or broken households or both. It’s like, ‘You’re paying me ‘this’ to fight? OK, cool.’ I don’t want to be that guy where I can’t even hold a conversation with somebody. I don’t want to be that guy who has a hard time tying their shoes, getting out of bed every morning.
I have no idea when I’m going to be done. The game is going to tell me. … It’s a drug, because it’s the highest highs and lowest lows. People chase that just like they chase meth or whatever your drug of choice is. … It’s the most difficult sport in the world to quit. I feel like the second I get that hint of, ‘Maybe you should be done?’ That’s when I’ll cut it.”
When he stops fighting Kraus plans to transition to coaching, something he reportedly does even better than fight. In the mean time, he realizes that cutting hard and fighting in a lower division adds danger to a dangerous sport; Saturday he fights at welterweight.