(CTE) Do You Guys Ever Worry About The Future Regarding...

There's so many people in this thread who clearly didn't get enough love from their mothers/families.
 
Mir and Diego Sanchez have taken more damage than anyone and they are doing fine. I'm not worried about any of my favorite fighters
 
HelloJapan said:
I've been following CTE for quite a while now, and it's been the elephant in the room for a long time, imo. As research has evolved it's only gotten more and more scary.
Click to expand...

I think it kind of is and isn't. I could definitely see in years to come lawsuits of fighters who've declined rapidly cognitive wise being issued against the UFC. The UFC can only encourage fighters to train smarter and not be having full on wars in training camps.

You probably know the points I'm making, but I've never heard Dana come out and address CTE but I've heard him plenty of times talking about MMA being 'safer' than boxing or American Football. I'm not really sure when CTE was an issue with the NFL though I know not so long ago there was a huge lawsuit against them from ex players families who had being found to suffer from CTE.

I watched a piece on a Canadian hockey player whose role was to start fights more than anything (his name escapes me) but he ended up committing suicide and when his brain was donated to Boston University, his brain had huge brown stains on it which is the set in stone proof that he had CTE. BU seems to be the main place where they examine the brains of deceased American Football players and there was some ridiculous stat that out of, just guessing here, 60 brains they examined and 59 showed signs of CTE.

The researchers aren't 100 per cent sure what causes it, how to treat it, but taking a smack to the head is not good for the brain, so for Dana to make a statement like that about MMA being 'safer' is probably down to ignorance. From listening to the folk who are experts in that field, they advocate non contact to the head. American Football is still being played and is probably the biggest money maker out of all the sports and from watching some of the collisions, it's probably the most likely profession when someone gets hit with a tackle and their brain rattles inside their skull they're going to eventually develop CTE.

Even that young lad who fought in Bellator and died in a traffic accident had roughly 8-12 fights showed signs of developing CTE when they examined his brain and he was in his mid-20s.
 
MadDogMahoney said:
To some degree I suppose. Organizations should do more to protect fighters, and also fighters need to know when to call it quits.
Click to expand...
Honestly most guys could probably develop the brain injuries just from training
 
Mark hunt

Robbie

Roy Nelson

Rory

I’d say all these will have it for sure
 
I don't wish anyone CTE, and it would be best if everyone is healthy and happy. Good for the fighters, the sport and the fans.

But worried? I worry as much as the fighters worry and me and my families' well being.
 
I follow CTE and while think MMA could be less damaging than other heavy contact competitions through safer training , officiating and cornering it still seems dangerous for a profession with fighters not aware of risks. Hope medical advances can help zoom in on CTE so can prevent and detect more timely. If MMA proves to be to hazardous to fighters I would consider giving up being a fan. No more big Daddy’s. UFC seems to cut people quick on the decline but more a coincidence for business reasons with a side safety factor.
 
Fights should now ban headshots. No punches or kicks to head allowed. Body shots only.

And then BTE will be introduced.
 
12ga. said:
No. It's a free country and they made their choice. Really you should only worry about yourself and family and stuff because if you worry about every little thing in the world you can do nothing about you'd be a mess.
Click to expand...

It's not about their freedom to fight I dont think they shouldnt be able to fight, its just the inevitability of it all. I am worrying about myself because this is the future I am headed towards. It's not a little thing to me either, mma is a huge part of my life.
 
MrCoffee said:
How do you feel about the well being of actual veterans?
Click to expand...
I don't know any vets on the level that I am invested in fighters. Vets dont give me something to look forward to every Saturday that keeps me from wanting to blow my brains out. As much as I respect vets and think ptsd is a horrible thing there will never be a day where it affects me the way knowing every fighter i love and spent countless time watching fight and interviews and meeting has life altering brain damage.
 
AJ Garcia said:
It’s weird that this just came up. The other day I lost a good friend/one of my coaches due to cte. He had over 50 fights and had been knocked out a lot. The last two years he has said he just knows something isn’t right with him. He shot himself the other day but before that said he wanted to donate his brain to Boston university to do research for cte.

It’s a harsh reality. Guys need to know when to stop. He should’ve been done fighting way before he finally quit but didn’t want to. It got to the point where he couldn’t even coach anymore because he suffered from ptsd. If he saw one of his guys start getting beat up it would fuck him up way bad. Just such a sad story.
Click to expand...

That's horrible bro, I am so sorry. Youre right it is a harsh reality, that's what I was trying to talk about with this thread. The reality that some of these guys will chase the glory of fighting until it kills them. It's scary and I agree with every person that said commissions should play a larger role in helping people quit when it's time, because I feel like it must almost be an addiction to keep doing something so bad for you to that point.
 
12ga. said:
There is a lot more to feel for than millionaire athletes. Slavery still exists - including USA with women slaves to pimps. hundreds of thousands die every day from war, maulnutrition, homeless, sex trafficking world wide, global warming which will probably kill us all or starve 90% of us out, yeah fighters not exactly on the top of my list.
Click to expand...
I get it, life is terrible. Fighters put their health on the line to distract us from the harsh reality of this world. It's not a competition which part of life sucks the most. When we're older one day and -all- the fighters we love and are invested in having serious mental problems making their lives and their families lives harder is another shitty reality of life. It all sucks, but it's not a competition.
 
Not as bad as boxing. Can you guys even think of many MMA fighters that slur their speech and seem brain dead? You take a lot more hits in boxing, now you do have you warrior fights but even then, they are taking less hits, the hits aren't as hard and precise, they usually don't have the chin to take a million hits, and they also have the ref to stop the fight in time... Assuming Mario isn't standing above you while you are out.
 
Hoop said:
I think it kind of is and isn't. I could definitely see in years to come lawsuits of fighters who've declined rapidly cognitive wise being issued against the UFC. The UFC can only encourage fighters to train smarter and not be having full on wars in training camps.

You probably know the points I'm making, but I've never heard Dana come out and address CTE but I've heard him plenty of times talking about MMA being 'safer' than boxing or American Football. I'm not really sure when CTE was an issue with the NFL though I know not so long ago there was a huge lawsuit against them from ex players families who had being found to suffer from CTE.

I watched a piece on a Canadian hockey player whose role was to start fights more than anything (his name escapes me) but he ended up committing suicide and when his brain was donated to Boston University, his brain had huge brown stains on it which is the set in stone proof that he had CTE. BU seems to be the main place where they examine the brains of deceased American Football players and there was some ridiculous stat that out of, just guessing here, 60 brains they examined and 59 showed signs of CTE.

The researchers aren't 100 per cent sure what causes it, how to treat it, but taking a smack to the head is not good for the brain, so for Dana to make a statement like that about MMA being 'safer' is probably down to ignorance. From listening to the folk who are experts in that field, they advocate non contact to the head. American Football is still being played and is probably the biggest money maker out of all the sports and from watching some of the collisions, it's probably the most likely profession when someone gets hit with a tackle and their brain rattles inside their skull they're going to eventually develop CTE.

Even that young lad who fought in Bellator and died in a traffic accident had roughly 8-12 fights showed signs of developing CTE when they examined his brain and he was in his mid-20s.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I recall a fairly recent story of a high school football player who had it as well, that's pretty scary. Aaron Hernandez had CTE bad, might partially explain his crazy actions...age 27. Also, famous BMX'er Dave Mirra had it as well...dead by suicide (he also boxed). I have a feeling this list is going to look intense ten years from now.
 
It didn't bother me at first, but the more I started to worry about my own health the more I realized how much these guys need to set aside their well-being for this.
 
trblesome1 said:
Honestly most guys could probably develop the brain injuries just from training
Click to expand...
its pretty much acknowledged in boxing back in the day that the majority of damage was done in the gym, especially when guys would spare without headgear.
Train smarter not harder.
 
Absolutely. I think the most important thing is that there are frank discussions in public spaces. I'm okay with the idea of a mixed martial arts fighter making an informed decision to risk brain damage later in life to pursue an income and a passion now, but it needs to be an informed decision. In the days of Gary Goodridge, everyone was talking about how MMA is so much safer because there's no standing eight count. These days I think most MMA fighters know the risk they're taking, and that's a very good thing.

CTE, though, is a different monster than most forms of brain damage, because its sufferers are often violent. There's a lot of money going into research, so let's cross our fingers we figure out how to identify and best support fighters with CTE before MMA gets its own Chris Benoit, because we don't, it's kind of inevitable.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,059
Messages
55,464,216
Members
174,785
Latest member
JoyceOuthw

Share this page

Back
Top