35 Star Athletes Who Had No Love For Their Own Sport

Darren - September 25, 2020

35 Star Athletes Who Had No Love For Their Own Sport

Darren - September 25, 2020

17. Chris Leben

In his own words, Leben said that he loves training but not actual competition. This might come as a surprise because he currently competes for the bare-knuckle boxing promotion BKFC. But the former UFC fighter says that fighting isn’t a lifestyle choice and that anyone who says otherwise can’t be telling the truth.

Way back in 2011, Leben spoke to assembled media. “I’ll be honest with you,” he said. “I don’t like fighting. I love the training.” He also thinks that nobody can honestly love the actual fight day itself because of all the nerves and mixed emotions. At the end of the day, money is a major motivation.

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16. Benoit Assou-Ekotto

Former Tottenham Hotspurs left-back Assout-Ekotto is one of the most forthright athletes on this list. Blessed with incredible hair, the French-born Cameroonian international rattled cages with a statement in 2011. He revealed that he doesn’t hate soccer but it definitely isn’t his passion.

This infuriated some fans but others praised him for his honesty. “Yes, I play for the money but then doesn’t everybody who gets up in the morning and goes to work?” Assou-Ekotto told the Daily Mail. “They do it to provide for their family.” It’s difficult to argue with that.

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15. CM Punk

Former WWE star Punk also spent time with the UFC. Fans mock the latter section of his career but he wanted to fight for a reason. He resented the sports entertainment industry because he couldn’t prove himself to be the best. It was all about the storyline and what would sell.

Then he moved to MMA because he wanted to truly test himself. However, both of his opponents in the UFC battered him yet you can appreciate the effort. We know that professional wrestling isn’t technically a sport, but his profile and lack of love for the industry make him a worthy addition to this list.

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14. Hulk

Brazilian soccer star Hulk earned cult status because of his muscular frame and nickname to match. After success with FC Porto, analysts predicted that he would have a great career in one of Europe’s top leagues. But he ended up moving to Russia with Zenit St. Petersburg. Why? Only because they offered him a massive salary.

From there, the Brazil international transferred to Chinese Super League team Shanghai SIPG. This may seem like a massive lack of ambition, but it’s difficult to say no to $400,000 a week. At the end of the day, the career of an elite athlete is very short. Some people will decry it, but Hulk is laughing all the way to the bank.

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13. Kwame Brown

We’ll never know exactly what Michael Jordan said to Brown. However, common belief points to the basketball legend as the reason behind Brown’s inability to fulfill his potential. Witnesses allege that Jordan regularly verbally abused the teenage Brown in front of his teammates, even making him cry.

Brown became one of the worst draft busts in NBA history. But is it really that surprising considering the pressure a living legend put upon him? He drifted around the league without ever making an impact. Brown fell out of love with the sport but had no other option.

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12. Leo Randolph

Randolph won Olympic gold at the 1976 Games in Montreal. Boxing fans saw the flyweight as a potential legend. His amateur career was up there with the very best. But then he switched to the professional side of the sport, and things started to go wrong.

First, he went 16-1, winning, losing, and reclaiming the WBA Super-Bantamweight strap. Then he took on Sergio Palma but the Argentine battered him until the stoppage in the fifth round. Randolph retired immediately after the crushing loss. The 22-year-old admitted that he lacked the killer instinct.

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11. Jordan Cameron

A former tight end for the Cleveland Browns and the Miami Dolphins, Cameron retired from football at the age of 28. He suffered four concussions and decided that playing on wasn’t worth the long-term health risk. Cameron made at least $20 million from his playing career and was happy with that.

However, Cameron rocked the football world when he came out with an uncomfortable truth. “There’s a few guys that love it,” said Cameron. “Ray Lewis loves football. Peyton Manning. They love it. But a lot of guys don’t really love this game, and there are players that will read this who will understand exactly what I’m talking about.” Not all fans accept this reality, but Cameron deserves respect for his honesty.

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10. Kelly Pavlik

Former unified middleweight champion Pavlik was a blue-collar hero in his native Ohio. ‘The Ghost’ was an extremely effective boxer with three title defenses, but he got out of the sport at the right time. He made his millions and explained that he no longer had a love for the sport. This is brave because many boxers fight on for far too long.

Pavlik retired after a fight against Andre Ward fell through. Then he decided enough was enough because it just wasn’t worth it anymore. “When you’re done, you might have brain problems, you might be punchy, you might develop Parkinson’s,” he explained to ESPN in 2011. “Why push it? I don’t need it and my heart’s not in it anymore.”

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9. Elena Delle Donne

One fact that fans fail to appreciate is the amount of travel that elite athletes must undertake. Furthermore, they don’t consider the mental strain that this can cause. In short, these fans believe that the players should suck it up because they are rich and famous.

However, even the very best have suffered from this scenario. Delle Donne is a WNBA legend but admitted her struggle with the sport. In 2009 she said, “I blamed basketball for taking me away from home. I hated the sport. Every time I played basketball I felt sick to my stomach.” The reality of professional sports is that they can be extremely lonely.

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8. Bobby Zamora

Zamora is a former Premier League striker and an England international. But he also proves that you can be very good at a sport but not hold much interest in it outside of your own bubble. While he enjoyed playing soccer, he didn’t have the burning passion to immerse himself in it as many other players have.

Some players plan on moving into coaching when they retire but Zamora doesn’t even watch games on his TV at home. He doesn’t hate soccer but nor does he love the game. In sum, it was an important stage of his life but it wasn’t his whole universe like many of his compatriots.

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7. Teruto Ishihara

Former UFC fighter Ishihara had an inconsistent record before the MMA promotion dropped him. But he never loved fighting and only wanted to attract girls. Seriously, that’s what he said in a 2016 interview. Now competing for RIZIN in his native Japan, the fairer sex is his main motivation.

Ishihara told Yahoo Sports: “I think I’m most attractive to girls when I’m doing this (fighting). If I thought I was good at something else that would get the girls to pay attention to me, I’d do that.” In sum, it’s probably why he never developed into the fighter he could have been. But at least he’s having a good time.

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6. Jon Daly

Daly had a lot of fans in the early days of his career because he came from a blue-collar background and was about as real a man as you could find in golf. He won the PGA Championship and The Open Championship to real star status in the early ’90s but has fallen from grace.

But he fell out of love with the sport and into an addictive lifestyle. Daly drinks alcohol like a fish in water and as a result has suffered several messy incidents. Now instead of being a blue-collar hero, he’s a caricature of his former self. In sum, it’s a pity because he had massive talent.

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5. Joe DiMaggio

DiMaggio is an American icon but the truth is that one of baseball’s biggest legends didn’t truly love his sport. However, he was extremely good at it as his record 56-game hitting streak attests. But his biographer, Richard Ben Cramer says that ‘Joltin’ Joe’ just saw it as a way to make money.

Furthermore, he wrote that DiMaggio even sold his medals and trophies before reporting them stolen so the New York Yankees would give him new ones. This book left the nation reeling when it first came out because it damaged the American hero’s myth. It’s easy to judge these athletes, but how many people stay in their regular jobs because of the money?

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4. Shane Supple

Definitely not the most famous name on this list, Supple is nevertheless a very interesting story. To all intents and purposes, it looked like the young Irishman was living the dream as an up-and-coming goalkeeper for the Championship soccer team Ipswich Town in the UK. Who wouldn’t want to play professional soccer at an elite level?

Coaches touted him as a future international and Premier League star. However, he missed his native Ireland and quit the sport despite his bright future. Instead, he returned home to play amateur Gaelic football. Supple was just 22 at the time so this was a unique move. He decided that family and happiness was more important than all of the riches in the world.

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3. Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson

Jackson is a former UFC light heavyweight champion. He first earned popularity during his time with Japanese promotion PRIDE. His combination of violence and sheer brutality made him a fan favorite. However, the truth is that the former A-Team movie star never loved the sport.

His main love is gaming. He prefers to spend his days smoking marijuana and playing videogames rather than training and fighting. Competing helped him to earn the money to make a very comfortable life for himself. But it never felt like it was his purpose in life.

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2. Chris Eubank

It’s rare that an athlete can be so successful yet maintain such contempt for their own sport. Yet that was exactly Eubanks’ situation as one of the best boxers on the planet. The British former WBO middleweight champion once went unbeaten for 43 fights but still claims that he ‘hates boxing.”

One of boxing’s most eccentric characters, Eubank described the sport as a “mug’s game” and also pointed to the fact that many fighters end up injured and disfigured. However, despite this, he supports his son in his endeavor to become a recognized world champion in the sport.

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1. Andre Agassi

Did anybody have more of a love-hate relationship with their sport than Agassi? The American experienced extraordinary success in his sport. An eight-time Grand Slam winner, Agassi was also an Olympic gold medallist. But despite this, he claimed to have no love for the sport.

In his 2009 autobiography, he revealed his loathing for his life as a tennis player. “I play tennis for a living even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion and always have,” he wrote. That’s a shocking thing for an elite athlete to openly admit. Many people hate their jobs but they expect athletes to feel as though they are living the dream.

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35 Star Athletes Who Had No Love For Their Own Sport