Gegard Mousasi Discusses Retirement & More

- Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Gegard Mousasi recently spoke with MMAJunkie.com, here are the highlights…

On Staying In Fight Shape: "I'm going to try to stay very busy. It's better to stay in shape the whole year, fight a lot, than fight and be fat again and train hard again. I don't like it. I like to be in shape the whole year, be in top shape, and then I'm going to take a break for one or two months (at the end of the year)."

On Fighting At Heavyweight: "It's going to take a lot of time," he said. "I have to take it step by step. I cannot put so many pounds on in a short time. First, I will be a small heavyweight, and slowly I want to put more pounds on. It will take two, three years before I'm a solid heavyweight."

On Training With GSP: "I think I can learn a lot," Mousasi said. "I think I can make it difficult [for him] in training. I don't think there's a lot I can teach him [besides] just training as hard as possible. That's what I'm going to do."

On His Contract Status: "They wanted me to sign for six fights," Mousasi said of the original deal. "I didn't want that. They didn't pay me that much. But money will come. I want to grow with Strikeforce as they grow with Showtime and CBS. I think it's a good place to be. If I had it in my mind, like OK, I'm going to the UFC, then I would have gone. But I have a new contract with DREAM, so I'm planning to stay busy and fight in Strikeforce and Japan constantly."

On Retirement: "I don't want to fight for too long," he said. "(At) 30, I'm finished. In my mind, (I just want) the amount of money that [would give me] a good life. Anymore than that, I don't need. Until I don't have the money that I want to have, I'm basically fighting to get there. Once I'm there and I'm one of the best, maybe I will fight for a place in the sport, remembered as one of the best. Until then, I'm basically fighting for money."

Hopefully he is able to stay even half as busy with these bigger orgs. He is 24 and has like almost 30 fight or so.

Yeah I read this earlier, he is young his plans will change.

He's still a pup. He doesn't know what he wants to do yet

That'd be a damn shame if he did retire for a while.

If he sticks with this, he has the potential to turn into one of the best MMA fighters ever IMO.

He's still good for 15-20 fights by the time he turns 30 if he sticks with the current plan... That's plenty of time to make a huge mark. I just hope he doesn't avoid fighting in the UFC for too long because there is some very interesting fights for him there. At LHW, there's very little outside of the UFC that poses serious challenges to this guy. And I know he's young, but I think HW is an idea he should shelf until after he's 30...

Things will change, organizations will change, one thing is for sure his plan will change.

I'm not concerned at all about the retirement thing, it's 6 years away and he left the possibility of fighting beyond that age wide open

SF's deal with CBS and their willingness to allow fighters to fight for other promotions is a major plus for them.

I seriously doubt he will retire at 30. Money talks and if he continues to fight at the level he's been at then when he's 30 he'll be making big bucks. The rich want to get richer.