Three Former UFC Fighters – Where Are They Now?
By Allen Race
In the world of Mixed Martial Arts, fame is fleeting and fighters come and go every year. MMA is a huge, growing sport, and the UFC is a massive organization — owners the Fertitta brothers alone are worth $2 billion, according to USA Today. Once their moment in the sun has passed, many MMA fighters seem to vanish into obscurity. Whatever happened to them and what are they doing today?
Sean Salmon
Sean Salmon was last seen in May 2007 in his bout with Alan Belcher at UFC 71, the fight in which he took home a guillotine choke submission loss. Salmon left the UFC and went to the local circuits. For awhile, he was a columnist for the mixed martial arts site MMAjunkie where he once talked about his career and mistakes in great detail.
Salmon drew ire for a article he wrote in which he admitted that in a fight with Allan Weickert at NAAFS – Fight Night in the Flats 5, he surrendered willingly — what many fans have called “throwing the fight.” Compounding to Salmon’s problems, the Ohio Athletic Commission found his explanations insufficient to their standards and issued him a one-year suspension and hefty $2,500 fine.
Since the fight with Weickert, Salmon has gone onto loss 10 of his last 12 fights including 11 in a row. Salmon recently said on the MMA Hour podcast if he loses his upcoming fight in 2014, he will retire from MMA. Rumors abound this match will be with Jason Guida, but nothing is certain yet. Let’s hope he spends the rest of the year training and not just playing the upcoming Battlefield 4 at home.
Junie Browning
The unofficial “bad boy” of television show The Ultimate Fighter‘s eighth season, Junie Browning was last in the UFC limelight when he took a submission loss to Cole Miller in April of 2009 at UFC Fight Night: Condit vs. Kampmann. Currently riding a five loss streak and boasting a record of 4-6 overall, Browning has had a couple of rough years. Browning was arrested in 2009 after being on The Ultimate Fighter for assaulting and threatening nurses, and he was charged with multiple counts of battery.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Browning is currently wanted in Thailand, charged with inciting a bar brawl in a bar in Phuket and extending the brawl all the way to the emergency room at Patong Hospital. Browning fled the scene, according to 5th Round, when the police arrived at the hospital. Browning was immediately cut from the UFC roster following the incident, and he has since moved to his hometown of Lexington, Ky. to coach at 4 Seasons MMA. The one ray of hope in Browning’s troubling post MMA story is that in November of last year, Browning posted on his personal Facebook he was one month sober.
Travis Lutter
Travis Lutter was one of two winners in season four of The Ultimate Fighter, which was probably his greatest moment in the spotlight. Following a loss to UFC great Anderson Silva, he took a staggering TKO at the hands of Rich Franklin in 2008 at UFC 83 and another loss in 2010 to Rafael Natal. Lutter left the UFC after the loss to Franklin and hasn’t fought since the loss to Natal. Instead he has focused on training the next generation of recruits of the sport in Fort Worth, Texas. He has a book available through his website that promises to build confidence, get you in shape and teach self-defense. At least some fighters leave the sport with dignity.
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