“Physically and mentally,” he answered as I gave up on the cat and twisted back around. “You know how it is,” he continued. “The constant training that sucks up the entire day. The traveling wasn’t bad, but worrying if you were going to lose your endorsements to the next big deal or if you were going to get hurt again can really wear on you.”

All of that was completely understandable. I wasn’t sure if fans knew how much of their lives the fighters gave up to fight even two or four times a year.

“And even if you’re not worrying about serious injuries, you get tired of your nose likely getting broken once a year.” He grinned as he reached up, feeling along the back side of his left ear. “Or cauliflower ear.”

“Yours isn’t bad.”

“I’m lucky.” His hand dropped. “But yeah, you know, in my last match I felt it—felt it in here.” He placed his right hand to the center of his chest. “It was just a sharp, stabbing sensation. I didn’t tear the muscle again, but damn, there was a second when fear punched the air out of me. Did not want to go through that again, and I knew that tiny bit of fear meant it was time for a change. You can’t get in there with anything holding you back. The moment you find yourself hesitating, it’s time to bow out.”

The idea of him tearing that muscle again terrified me. It could still happen. Especially since he still liked to get on the mats with new recruits. “Do you miss it?”

“Sometimes, but I was ready to move on. And I think being ready when I left makes it all okay.”

Something occurred to me as I listened to him. He’d said he broke off the engagement with Kristen about a year ago. His last match was probably six months to a year before that.

Asking about Kristen felt weird, but the curiosity was too much. “How did Kristen take you retiring?”

If my question caught him off-guard or if he was uncomfortable with it, his expression didn’t show it. “I think she liked the idea of me being around more and we could actually do things together. When I was actively fighting, it was like having a ten to twelve hour a day job. I was always training, so it didn’t leave a lot of time to go and do things.”

I studied him closely. “You say that like once it happened it was a different story.”

He grinned. “You know, Kristen and I were together for a long time, but we really weren’t in the same place often. You really don’t know each other—know their wants and desires until you’re spending a lot of time with them. Things change then.”

“So . . . you two didn’t get along?”