MMA: Will Stephen Neal Trade in Helmet and Pads for Five Ounce Gloves?

Before the UFC established MMA as a viable career path for collegiate wrestlers, grapplers looking to extend their athletic shelf life had a handful of options. They could chase Olympic glory while working as a coach to pay the bills. If they were heavyweights, they could dip their toes in professional wrestling.

Or, they could attempt the very difficult task of transferring their athleticism to an entirely different sport. That was the path that Stephen Neal chose after a wildly successful wrestling career at Cal State-Bakersfield. Neal was able to make the New England Patriots roster despite not playing the sport in college and went on to win three Super Bowl rings with the Patriots.

As MMA has exploded in popularity, Neal’s name has been the one whispered by hardcore fans. He was the man who defeated Brock Lesnar for the 1999 NCAA championship. MMA luminaries Randy Couture (who tried to recruit him to Oregon State), Tito Ortiz (a former college teammate), and even Lesnar believe that Neal could be a force to contend with in the Octagon.

Today, Neal announced his retirement from professional football. He has expressed an interest in trying his hand at MMA as well as a return to Olympic wrestling. While the possibility has the MMA world abuzz, we have to wonder if he’s serious or if he’s just trying to keep his name in the media.  There are a few factors to consider, however.

Age

Stephen Neal is 34 years old. He may be only one year older than Randy Couture was when he made his MMA debut but we have to remind ourselves that Couture is the outlier. What Couture has done is not normal and should not be expected out of anyone else.

In addition to chronological age, it is also important to look at the wear and tear that an athlete has put on his body. For fighters, that is usually measured in the number of fights that he has had. Neal has no MMA fights to his name but he has played ten seasons in the NFL. Any way you slice it that will put a lot of wear and tear on the body.

Thirty four years old is an age when most professional athletes are hanging up the cleats. Athletes typically retire because either their bodies aren’t holding up as well as they did when they were younger or they’ve lost the will to compete.  

Injuries

Neal is retiring from the NFL due to a lingering shoulder issue that caused him to miss the second half of the 2010 season. If he can no longer stay healthy enough to play in the NFL, is it realistic to expect him to start a new career in fighting? Both football and MMA are extremely demanding contact sports that place slightly different demands on the body.

Perhaps the training and competition of MMA would be different enough to allow Neal to stay healthy. For example, maybe the heavy lifting that Neal had to perform as an NFL player constantly aggravated his shoulder.  If he crossed over to MMA, he would be looking to slim down in order to meet the 265 pound heavyweight limit.

That would require more conditioning and less strength training. In this hypothetical scenario, the shoulder problems wouldn’t be an issue but, of course, this is pure speculation. Neal is the only one who knows how many miles are left in his body.

Competitive Fire

Neal is retiring because of ongoing injury problems, not because he no longer has the will to compete. Assuming that he is healthy enough, however, does he have enough fire in the gut to make the commitment to master a new sport?

Neal is an outstanding wrestler but he would be starting from scratch in muay thai, jiu-jitsu, and boxing. He would also have to re-shape his body from a football player’s to a fighter’s. The transition to a new sport requires a lot of hard work and if Neal isn’t brimming with competitive fire at this point in his life then it won’t work.

Does the fact that he narrowly missed out on a spot on the Olympic team continue to gnaw at him, like it has for Couture? Or have the three Super Bowl victories with the Patriots filled that void for him?

UFC

Dana White welcomed Brock Lesnar into the UFC with only one professional MMA bout to his name. Would he be willing to do the same for Stephen Neal? Letting anyone fight in the UFC with such a limited resume is a risky move but Lesnar was an accomplished wrestler prior to his career in the WWE. Coupled with his name recognition and proven ability to sell a PPV and that risk was mitigated.

Neal is a more accomplished wrestler than Lesnar and has had an extremely successful career with the New England Patriots, but can he sell a PPV like Lesnar? Despite all that he has accomplished, how much name recognition does he have with the casual MMA and even NFL fan? The position that he played in football, despite being absolutely critical, is possibly the most anonymous one.

Trying to predict Dana White’s actions is a tricky proposition. No one seemed more surprised that he signed James Toney than White himself. But with his athletic pedigree, Neal may only want to fight if he can do so at the highest level.

Before he made his foray into MMA, Lesnar originally tried to follow in Neal’s footsteps by entering the NFL. After coming very close to making the Minnesota Viking squad, Lesnar decided that MMA was the best way to scratch his competitive itch. Twelve years after they met on the wrestling mat, will Neal now try to follow in Lesnar’s footsteps by entering the world of MMA?