VANCOUVER – Carlos Condit’s career could be over after he suffered a first-round submission loss to Demian Maia in Saturday’s UFC on FOX 21 main event.

Condit (30-10 MMA, 7-6 UFC) openly talked about walking away from the sport following a narrow split-decision loss to Robbie Lawler in a welterweight title fight at UFC 195 in January. He decided to return for the showdown with Maia (24-6 MMA, 18-6 UFC), but after being submitted in less than two minutes, he seemed to indicate the end of his fighting career, citing an inability to compete in his desired fashion.

“I don’t know if I have any business fighting at this level anymore,” Condit said at UFC on FOX 21’s post-fight news conference. “I’ve been at this for a really long time. The pressure of kind of being one of the top guys for almost a decade, it’s been awesome to be involved in this sport as long as I have. I got to do what I love for a living for a very long time. I don’t know, man. I don’t know if I belong here anymore. We’ll see.”

UFC on FOX 21 took place at Rogers Arena in Vancouver. The welterweight bout between Condit and Maia headlined the FOX-televised main card following prelims on FOX and UFC Fight Pass.

The defeat dropped Condit to 2-5 in his past seven bouts, but all of those losses came against the best of the best at 170 pounds. “The Natural Born Killer” was quickly grounded by Maia before he was placed on the wrong end of a dominant position and ultimately caught in a fight-ending rear-naked choke. Condit said he wasn’t exactly surprised by the ground skills of his opponent, but rather how smoothly Maia put together his skills.

“(He’s a) super, super high level jiu-jitsu practitioner,” Condit said. “Actually he hit me with a shot from half guard rattled me and I didn’t really expect that. After that he started moving to mount and I gave him my back because I didn’t want to get hit, I was actually, I was kind of rocked from that shot. He puts together his passing with his striking very well and that’s why he’s as good as he is.”

Many fighters make reactionary statements following a loss that are later reconsidered upon reflection. Condit did it once already following the loss to Lawler, but his comments following the bout with Maia seemed much more clear that he’s aware the end is near. However, he did mention how difficult it would be to walk away from the sport after what was the quickest of his 10 career losses.

“It’s definitely been in the back of my mind for a while now,” Condit said. “It’s been a long career and I think there comes a point in every fighter’s career where they have to question how long they want to do that. It wasn’t my night tonight. I don’t know if that’s going to be the swan song for me. Hopefully not. I would hate to go out on a loss like this. I would have at least like to go out there and put on an exciting show like I usually do. I don’t know what’s in the cards. I’m leaning towards probably, possibly being done.”

What might have been the most concerning statement of all from Condit is how he was rattled by one of Maia’s strikes on the ground. Condit made it clear that could have been a result of accumulative damage he’s taken over the course of his career, and from all indications he wants to get out of the sport before something irreversible occurs inside the octagon.

“Honestly, I’ve had a tough career with a lot of fights and I’ve taken a lot of punishment,” Condit said. “I don’t know if I can continue to take shots, honestly.

“I’ll probably talk to the people around me, talk to my wife and kind of make the decision after we’ve had some discussion and a little bit of assessing where I’m going and what’s on the horizon.”

For complete coverage of UFC on FOX 21, check out the UFC Events section of the site.