If/when he is medically cleared but decides not to return or that he wants to retire (although I personally believe he will return), is it as simple as he can just walk away? Or, is he penalized and has to pay something to his employer to get out of it? Didn’t he recently sign like a 9 fight contract with the UFC?
Same question regarding GSP I suppose, unless his contract ended anyway after Hendricks, I forget. Is he able to just leave without any monetary penalty?
Or do they simply just get a dirty look from Dana but otherwise everything is cool? As much control as the UFC has over these guys, it seems too good to be true they could just say "Adios" on short notice when the UFC brass knows they will lose money without them.
Double post.
Yes, he and GSP can just walk away with no financial penalty. But they can not fight for anyone else, or even make appearances for any of UFC's competitors.
Might even be some stipulations around other forms of media as well.
Do you think this is basically the way it is for all UFC fighters, or are some contracts different?
How long before they could fight for another organization if they never returned to the UFC?
Yeah, they are all like that. If a fighter decides to retire, they retire. That's that.
But if a year later, they decide that they need to fight again and return to the sport. The contract reactivates and they must fulfill their contractual obligations to Zuffa before fighting for anyone else.
Anderson owes like 8 fights to the UFC for instance.
EvilMaster's got it.
Zuffa cannot compel folks to fight--that's slavery, like gladiators. No court would force anybody to fight, regardless of what the underlying contract said. Zuffa knows that, so the contracts don't purport to require it.
But Zuffa can bar folks from fighting elsewhere during a contractual term, until the fighter has fought a certain number of times for Zuffa, or until Zuffa cuts them.
The specific duration and specific number of fights likely varies by contract. 
Yes, if they refuse to fight, then Zuffa can sue to force them to fight. If Zuffa wins the court case, then federal marshals will handcuff GSP and bring him to the arena and throw him into the octagon against his next opponent.