10 Former MMA Stars Who Have Surprisingly Normal Jobs

Competing at the highest level in the sport of mixed martial arts can be an immensely profitable profession for those headlining pay-per-view events, and often is the culmination of a lifetime of learning the art of how to dominate another human being inside the confines of a cage.

However, due to the brutal nature of a lifetime training the body to compete in unarmed combat, fighters only have a relatively small window where they can perform at their peak before they physically just cannot keep up.

I mean sure, there are always people such as Dan Severn who managed to somehow walk out of a lifetime of both professional and collegiate wrestling and a mind-boggling 127 professional MMA fights but they are very much the exception to the general rule.

So what do fighters do when they call time on their careers in the cage? Of course, some, such as Duane Ludwig and Dan Hardy, have transitioned into careers in coaching and MMA media respectively, but others have gone on to live an all-round more regular life.

Not that there's anything wrong with that of course. While MMA has proven to be hugely profitable for a select few, for many fighters life after the sport is actually far more financially stable than competing in a cage to put food on the table.

Competing at the highest levels of the sport at heavyweight while working in the public services isn't impossible. I mean, current UFC Heavyweight Champion Stipe Miocic also works as a firefighter, but back in the early 2010s there was Mike Russow, who juggled being a top ten fighter with his work in the Chicago Police Department.

Russow would be catapulted into the spotlight in a bout on the pay-per-view card of UFC 114 against Todd Duffee. At that time, Duffee was one of the most hyped talents in the division, in a weight class where young prospects don't come around too often.

The difference between the two fighters was most striking when comparing their appearance, Duffee looked like a chiselled Greek god whereas Russow was decidedly less aesthetically intimidating. Despite this, Russow would prove his superiority in the Octagon, rallying back to drop Duffee in the third-round before finishing him off with one of the most vicious follow-up strikes in the history of the sport.

Russow retired from MMA in and has since his continued his career walking-the-beat in the Police.