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Former UFC heavyweight, Antoni Hardonk has admitted his mixed martial arts career didn’t really happen and whilst he may still have some talent, has now turned his attentions to teaching and passing on his knowledge to the younger fighters.
Speaking via MMAFighting.com, Hardonk said:
“In your twenties, you don’t think about the future as much. You do whatever you feel like doing and you don’t think about it. In your thirties, the future is more of a consideration. For me, I’m a good competitor, I have some talent, but I can’t retire on that. I can survive, but that’s basically it. So I decided I had to move on. It didn’t really happen for me, and I’m ok with that. But I realized that I had gained a lot of knowledge over the years, and with that knowledge I could other fighters.”
“I always enjoyed teaching. I enjoyed helping people and making them better – people at all levels. I think you could be a rich man, but if you don’t have anyone to share it with it doesn’t matter. I think that’s one of the great things in life is sharing it with other people. Fighting is my passion, and I enjoy sharing that passion with other people. Also, I think I’m good at it. I think I’m a good communicator and I can analyze things and see things that maybe people can’t always see for themselves.”
Hardonk, who went 8-6 in his MMA career, hasn’t necessarily retired for good and is now determined to pass on the knowledge he has developed in a career that has spanned over ten years.
“I felt like I was missing something in my training and it was affecting my performance in my fights. I saw my training partners were going through the same thing, so I thought maybe I should step aside and try to help them with that. In the last year, it’s something I was struggling with. You can’t be a fighter, the coach, and the training partner. You need other people.”
Hardonk has since taken the twenty-two-year-old UFC heavyweight skyscraper, Stefan Struve under his wing after opening his own gym in Santa Monica, California. The Dutchman believes his fellow countryman has a bright future in a time where MMA is becoming increasingly popular and accepted.
“Stefan and I walked in the same path in many ways, but times have changed. I had a professional kickboxing career before I started MMA, and I feel like I was a little unlucky there. I was always going against the flow, had some problems with my management and mistakes were made. I think I never reached my full potential in kickboxing because of that.”
Its too bad his MMA career hasnt worked out, although im glad he has taken Struve under his wing and he should be able to help in the development of Struve and pass on his experience. Also them being the same nationality is certainly a bonus.
Struve is a fighter who is crying to join a top camp to help him go the extra step to develop to hs full potential. He is still very young but now is the time to move forward. Alot of fighters think he is going to be a star when he's older as evidence by Roy Nelson comment after the fight. And also Mir, Nog and Cain have said good things about him.
