Varner: ATTN Fighters – spar once a week
Jamie Varner: “If I could give any advice to young, upcoming fighters – you’re a fighter, you don’t need to spar to prove how tough you are. So spar once a week.”
Former WEC Lightweight Champion and top contender Jamie Varner retired from the UFC at age 30, over concerns about head trauma.
“My career got cut short because I was sparring three days a week, with bigger opponents,” said Varner.”I had Ryan Bader, Aaron Simpson, Carlos Condit. Those were my sparring partners from like 2006 to 2010. So I had a lot of head trauma just sparring with those big guys.
“If I could give any advice to young, upcoming fighters – you’re a fighter, you don’t need to spar to prove how tough you are. So spar once a week.
“Sparring is a tool that is used to work on game plans, and to see where you are condition wise, cardiovascularly. You don’t need to spar three days a week to prove you’re tough. You’re fighting in the UFC, you’re obviously tough … That’s ultimately what cut my career short.
“But you know what? I had an awesome career. I won big fights. I won a world title. I am happy with what I accomplished.”
“The headgear protects you from getting cut, but it’s still blunt force trauma man. I wore headgear pretty much my whole career. I’ve been knocked out once – in 35 fights I’ve been knocked out one time. But all the trauma I’ve had sparring wise, I had headgear. You can still get a concussion and not get knocked out. So headgear or no headgear, you should spar once a week.
“You should definitely wear the headgear, it will protect your brain just a little extra. Wear the 16 oz gloves; you don’t need to spar with little MMA gloves. And I think that will help prolong people’s fighting careers.”
“The purpose of a fight is to give your opponent a concussion. That’s the purpose of a fight. That’s never going to change. Sparring once a week, maybe once every other week, and only sparring to prepare for a fight. You don’t need to spar in off season. You don’t need to spar 12 weeks out from a fight. Spar maybe four to six weeks out from a fight.”
“If they want to get more conditioning, go run, go grapple, go wrestle, hit the bag. You don’t need to get hit in the head to become a better fighter.”
I’m going to be working with the UFC in an athlete development advisory role. I’m going to be helping young fighters with budgeting their money, preparing for their future, and how to handle social media and press. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my career, and I want to help other fighters from going through the same roller coaster ride that I did.”
“There is a life after fighting. You have to prepare for it.”