Monson: Two more wins and I can retire

Jeff Monson has been fighting for nearly 20 years. He had 10 fights in 2015, going 5-5. Three of the five losses were via KO. One of the wins however was a TKO loss that turned to a DQ after a late soccer kick. His most recent fight, to Donald NjatahNya, 23, was lost in under a minute. He is 45 years old.

As you can see in this video, and Monson freely acknowledged, his chin is gone. The first jab in the fight visibly wobbled him. The second knocked out his mouthpiece. In less than a minute he was face planted, rolling over in slow motion to Guard after the fight had ended.

Jeff Monson needs to retire.

However, he says he has 58 wins, and wants to retire with 60 wins. His record shows 59 wins. He acknowledges that the “60 win” plan has little sense behind it. But he doesn’t want to go out face down. 

Who does? But the problem with retiring too late in mixed martial arts is that it is not your knees or back that go. It is your brain. 

He jabbed me twice, said Monsonto Ben Fowlkes for MMAjunkie. Just two jabs, no big deal. But man, I felt it. I was groggy, my bell was rung, just from two jabs. I remember thinking, ‘This isn’t normal.’

Everybody thinks (continuing to fight) is a bad idea for me. Everybody.

Monson can, in the same breath, admit that how he felt after eating two jabs from Nya was a cause for serious concern, then turn right around and say that they’re going to have a rematch in March, thank goodness.

I have 58 wins. It’s not that deep or anything. I want to win 60 fights.

I can’t live with that situation, with December 25 being my last fight. I can’t accept that.

Asked if he might be setting this arbitrary end point as a way of allowing himself to put off the question of what he’ll do with himself once he’s done fighting, Monson didn’t hesitate.

Yes, 100 percent that’s what I’m doing, he said. I know that when I’m done I want to teach, run my own school, all that. But do I want to do it right now?

So for now Monson’s plan is to work around it, this thing that’s happening to him. For these next two fights, he said, he’ll tailor his training around avoiding punches, avoiding any and all shots to the head, focusing on getting his fights to the floor where he can put his considerable grappling skills to good use.

In this way, he tells himself, he might be able to get those extra wins he thinks he needs. He might be able to leave the sport on something other than a dismal knockout loss, and in so doing, he might find some lasting peace that he can carry into his post-fighting life.

But if it doesn’t happen, if I win one of them and not the other or something like that? Monson said. I don’t know. It’s going to be hard to take.

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Perhaps Jeff Monson is suffering “only” from post-concussion syndrome (PCS) where symptoms begin shortly after a concussion, and last for weeks, months, and sometimes even years. However, Chronic traumatic encephalopathy sometimes doesn’t begin to show until years after retirement. Maybe he already has it.