Fighting with broken orbital bones

[Tuvatuva]

A little background about me: I used to box professionally years back and in my last fight, my opponent hit me with a shot that broke my orbital bone. I couldn't see out of one eye and spent the rest of the fight getting chased around the ring until the ref stopped it.

At the hospital I find out I broke the orbital on one side and fractured the other. Thinking back, likely due to hard sparring before the fight because my vision felt a little wonky at times during camp. One eyeball was literally slightly drooped down inside my skull because the supporting bone was broken, hence I couldn't see. The doctor put a titanium plate to hold it back up and a screw in the other one that was fractured. It was an extremely painful experience since they had to open up my face and I couldn't properly see for like a month.
He told me to be careful about taking impact to the face again because it could possible dislodge the screw or plate and I would have go back into surgery to have that fixed. I did get whacked hard in sparring and once took a surf board to the head but so far so good.

This experience scared me to the point I quit competing, went to the gym less, lost interest in sparring, and eventually lost interest in boxing and martial arts in general.

But I realized that there are a quite a few fighters who not just go back to fighting after such injuries, but some even fight through the injury during the fight that it happened. Inoue vs Donaire comes to mind. Inoue suffered a broken orbital and still won the fight, knocking Donaire down once. Maybe I'm just a pussy and definitely was never cut out to be a fighter of that caliber.

Anyway, after years of having broken up with boxing, my interest in fighting has surprisingly come back. In the past couple years I've been traveling, I dabbled in Muay Thai while in Thailand (considered having a match for the experience but decided against it for various reasons) and went to a boxing gym in Indonesia to spar. More and more I've been thinking about training and fighting. I've been going to a local fitness gym that has bags to spend time to hit the bags and shadow box with some occasional light sparring with guys who are also there for the same thing.

Okay this was a longer post than I expected, but basically my idea is that I'm planning to train again at my old gym and I want to ask my trainer if I can compete again as an amateur. I wonder since my pro license had been long expired, I would be allowed to compete in some local amateur tournaments.

I imagine it won't be as intense as fighting young hungry pros since I would be going up against amateurs in my age group (late 30s). But I am still worried about my orbital bone. It has been years now since the surgery and the bigger gloves and headgear would make eye injuries less likely, but the concern is still there.

I met a local mma guy who broke one orbital bone in a fight, recovered and got the other one broken in his next fight, and he still competes. So maybe it's not that bad?

So my question is, how many of you here have competed/sparred hard again after an orbital bone injury?

Also, how many former pros go back to the amateurs? Is that a thing? I definitely need to talk my trainer about this.

 

[shunyata]

Bruh, talk to your dr about this. Not your trainer.

If you still have a plate and screws (hardware), you're high risk as fuck and should stick with a paying day job and training for fun.

 

[Tuvatuva]

Bruh, talk to your dr about this. Not your trainer.

If you still have a plate and screws (hardware), you're high risk as fuck and should stick with a paying day job and training for fun.

That's why I want to compete in the amateurs. Making a living off fighting is a ridiculous idea for me now. Doctors for sure will tell me not to train, much less compete. I don't always take the advice of doctors seriously when it comes to sports. They always err on the side of extreme caution. The plate is what worries me, but my bone has surely completely healed since it's been almost a decade ago.

 

[Trabaho]

I don't think you should compete or spar at all. There's still metal in your face. I don't know about any ufc fighter with metal in their skull that competed.

Maybe they got better doctors. Broken orbital OK. But it never recovering and metal staying there is bad.

I know RDA had some metal in his jaw from the Guida fight.

I personally would not spar if I had metal in my face. Now if it was broken and recovered OK, different scenario.


So you're gonna have it in there forever ? Do you still notice it ?

 

[DoctorTaco]

You dont get to beat up amateurs because you’re no longer good enough to compete against pros. Sorry man but it doesn’t work that way.

 

[nonoob]

I personally would not spar if I had metal in my face.

Agree, no way would the risk of permanent eye damage be worth the adrenaline rush of sparring.
No idea how to replace missing that one-on-one rush, some say intense video games help them.

 

[shincheckin]

Do you have a boxrec? Not trying to be a dick or instigate, but asking if you can go box again as a amateur after boxing as a professional makes me question the validity of your claims of boxing professionally.

 

[Sinister]

A little background about me: I used to box professionally years back and in my last fight, my opponent hit me with a shot that broke my orbital bone. I couldn't see out of one eye and spent the rest of the fight getting chased around the ring until the ref stopped it.

At the hospital I find out I broke the orbital on one side and fractured the other. Thinking back, likely due to hard sparring before the fight because my vision felt a little wonky at times during camp. One eyeball was literally slightly drooped down inside my skull because the supporting bone was broken, hence I couldn't see. The doctor put a titanium plate to hold it back up and a screw in the other one that was fractured. It was an extremely painful experience since they had to open up my face and I couldn't properly see for like a month.
He told me to be careful about taking impact to the face again because it could possible dislodge the screw or plate and I would have go back into surgery to have that fixed. I did get whacked hard in sparring and once took a surf board to the head but so far so good.

This experience scared me to the point I quit competing, went to the gym less, lost interest in sparring, and eventually lost interest in boxing and martial arts in general.

But I realized that there are a quite a few fighters who not just go back to fighting after such injuries, but some even fight through the injury during the fight that it happened. Inoue vs Donaire comes to mind. Inoue suffered a broken orbital and still won the fight, knocking Donaire down once. Maybe I'm just a pussy and definitely was never cut out to be a fighter of that caliber.

Anyway, after years of having broken up with boxing, my interest in fighting has surprisingly come back. In the past couple years I've been traveling, I dabbled in Muay Thai while in Thailand (considered having a match for the experience but decided against it for various reasons) and went to a boxing gym in Indonesia to spar. More and more I've been thinking about training and fighting. I've been going to a local fitness gym that has bags to spend time to hit the bags and shadow box with some occasional light sparring with guys who are also there for the same thing.

Okay this was a longer post than I expected, but basically my idea is that I'm planning to train again at my old gym and I want to ask my trainer if I can compete again as an amateur. I wonder since my pro license had been long expired, I would be allowed to compete in some local amateur tournaments.

I imagine it won't be as intense as fighting young hungry pros since I would be going up against amateurs in my age group (late 30s). But I am still worried about my orbital bone. It has been years now since the surgery and the bigger gloves and headgear would make eye injuries less likely, but the concern is still there.

I met a local mma guy who broke one orbital bone in a fight, recovered and got the other one broken in his next fight, and he still competes. So maybe it's not that bad?

So my question is, how many of you here have competed/sparred hard again after an orbital bone injury?

Also, how many former pros go back to the amateurs? Is that a thing? I definitely need to talk my trainer about this.

I've had 2 different fighters continue boxing after orbital fractures. One required surgery, the other didn't. Neither of them have permanent injury albeit it IS a risk. Neither of them needed a screw or plate, either thought. The last guy I ever knew who claimed he had a metal plate somewhere was Edwin Valero, that didnt turn out too well

 

[Sinister]

Do you have a boxrec? Not trying to be a dick or instigate, but asking if you can go box again as a amateur after boxing as a professional makes me question the validity of your claims of boxing professionally.

I had 1 Pro fight. If I ever fight again it will likely be as an Amateur. It's possible after a certain amount of time.

 

[oldshadow]

With the metal it's a bad idea. I have had fighters with broken face bones of different types. They fought again but no plates or screws. And there is the huge difference. Depending on the place of the injury you could blind yourself or end up in major face reconstruction or both.

If you are honest at the pre fight physical I don't see how any doctor would allow you to fight. And if as in most when he touches your face to do a check he is going to know something is up.

 

[Tuvatuva]

Thanks for the input guys. The thought of a piece of metal getting rocked around my skull is scary, so I may just do some light sparring here and there at most. I will talk to my trainer but I think he might also tell me not to do it. Sucks though.

Do you have a boxrec? Not trying to be a dick or instigate, but asking if you can go box again as a amateur after boxing as a professional makes me question the validity of your claims of boxing professionally.

Yes I do. I'm not a bit embarrassed to share it because my record sucks haha. I also wasn't sure if I'd be allowed to fight as an amateur but I figure my trainer would have the answer.

 

[SandisLL]

Then solution might be simple : post boxrec profile link and am profiles links...
While you should know reality that am boxing / KB might be not lesser dangerous for health in long term.
Some elite level pros even were more devastating as ams than later vs pros....
I mean for long term health.

 

[SandisLL]

I had 1 Pro fight. If I ever fight again it will likely be as an Amateur. It's possible after a certain amount of time.

I'm subjective ofc, still, maybe pro might be better than am IF tournament format and you have fulltime job etc.
Tournament stuff for ams in europe usually is when they does have not 1 standalone fight but like for example IF 8 boxers, then they will do 1st cycle and after this 4 boxers will be for 2 nd cycle and then 3 rd cycle as final.
All this stuff usually is done during 3-7 days timeframe....

 

[listrahtes]

That's a question only a qualified surgeon can answer. As most suggest the answer probably will be dont do it. I would save the money and just don't spar or fight.

Amateurs depending on the country are definitely not less dangerous or powerful..

 

[SandisLL]

They does have index for tournaments too.
Some euro countries does have like this : 1 x coef for national, 3 x coef for international and some kind more close to 6 x coef for continental and 12 x coef for World Championship or Olympic games.

For some 3 x value cup type stuff you might compete in europe even if you are from U.S, Israel or Africa or Asia...

 

[shincheckin]

Well guys, I am a nurse not a doctor, but my understanding is that when the bone breaks it grows back stronger. So if you have pins in place, once the bone fully heals, the joint should be stronger than if it had never been broken.

Now for myself, 1 year ago, I got some pins put in my hip. My pins are new Fancy ones that allows the bone to not only grow around them but also through them. So the bone has completely fused together

 

[SandisLL]

That's a question only a qualified surgeon can answer. As most suggest the answer probably will be dont do it. I would save the money and just don't spar or fight.

Amateurs depending on the country are definitely not less dangerous or powerful..

There cos he mentioned that he had vision problems with suregon alone will not be enough.
Opthalmologist + neurologist and yeh, suregon...
+ IMHO normal MR and CT ( both with contrast ) ....
As bare minimum.

 

[listrahtes]

Well guys, I am a nurse not a doctor, but my understanding is that when the bone breaks it grows back stronger. So if you have pins in place, once the bone fully heals, the joint should be stronger than if it had never been broken.

That is true but not the point here. The problem is that with metal and its higher density a break in the bone can be much more dramatic in consequence as the metal breaks through the bone. Thats why in general its always a good idea to get all metal back out of your body after surgery if thats a possiblity. Doesnt really matter that the bone is stronger as it still can break or breaks at a different place.

Everything can break. Even hip prosthesis can break out of the bone with enough force . Thats why he needs qualified specialists evaluating the risk. Now having metal pins close to your brain and in this case a damaged optical nerve with a pre damaged orbital and problems in sight, planning on getting punched full force in the face might not be that clever of an idea. I think he knows that.

 

[Trabaho]

Yeahaybe a good doctor could take the metal out and evaluate if you're bone is as strong as a healthy individual ones.

With the metal still being there, it could be disaster. I'm not a doctor but it's obvious

 

[TonyRolo]

A little background about me: I used to box professionally years back and in my last fight, my opponent hit me with a shot that broke my orbital bone. I couldn't see out of one eye and spent the rest of the fight getting chased around the ring until the ref stopped it.

At the hospital I find out I broke the orbital on one side and fractured the other. Thinking back, likely due to hard sparring before the fight because my vision felt a little wonky at times during camp. One eyeball was literally slightly drooped down inside my skull because the supporting bone was broken, hence I couldn't see. The doctor put a titanium plate to hold it back up and a screw in the other one that was fractured. It was an extremely painful experience since they had to open up my face and I couldn't properly see for like a month.
He told me to be careful about taking impact to the face again because it could possible dislodge the screw or plate and I would have go back into surgery to have that fixed. I did get whacked hard in sparring and once took a surf board to the head but so far so good.

This experience scared me to the point I quit competing, went to the gym less, lost interest in sparring, and eventually lost interest in boxing and martial arts in general.

But I realized that there are a quite a few fighters who not just go back to fighting after such injuries, but some even fight through the injury during the fight that it happened. Inoue vs Donaire comes to mind. Inoue suffered a broken orbital and still won the fight, knocking Donaire down once. Maybe I'm just a pussy and definitely was never cut out to be a fighter of that caliber.

Anyway, after years of having broken up with boxing, my interest in fighting has surprisingly come back. In the past couple years I've been traveling, I dabbled in Muay Thai while in Thailand (considered having a match for the experience but decided against it for various reasons) and went to a boxing gym in Indonesia to spar. More and more I've been thinking about training and fighting. I've been going to a local fitness gym that has bags to spend time to hit the bags and shadow box with some occasional light sparring with guys who are also there for the same thing.

Okay this was a longer post than I expected, but basically my idea is that I'm planning to train again at my old gym and I want to ask my trainer if I can compete again as an amateur. I wonder since my pro license had been long expired, I would be allowed to compete in some local amateur tournaments.

I imagine it won't be as intense as fighting young hungry pros since I would be going up against amateurs in my age group (late 30s). But I am still worried about my orbital bone. It has been years now since the surgery and the bigger gloves and headgear would make eye injuries less likely, but the concern is still there.

I met a local mma guy who broke one orbital bone in a fight, recovered and got the other one broken in his next fight, and he still competes. So maybe it's not that bad?

So my question is, how many of you here have competed/sparred hard again after an orbital bone injury?

Also, how many former pros go back to the amateurs? Is that a thing? I definitely need to talk my trainer about this.

Get into BJJ (you may have done it before but this gives you an opportunity to do it full time since it seems like you are mainly into boxing/muay thai) and do some grappling tournaments to get your feet wet into competition again. The decision is up to you, don't let anyone make you feel weak for not competing again as you have multiple fights and continued fighting despite having a broken orbital bone which is a tough thing to do. I haven't been in your situation but I am trying to give you my best advice which is to do what you think is best for you but if you feel that competing again can cause serious injury there's nothing wrong with hanging up the gloves and moving on in life.