How do so many fighters sustain constant damage to the head and yet remain coherent and mentally well?

[AzorAhai1]

For the most part, fighters remain healthy and well into their later years. Of course, there are outliers who end up with mental damage and go off the rails. However, how is it that so many fighters are able to sustain damage and remain mentally stable and well? For example, look at Poirier, Smith, Bisping, Paul Felder, Jim Miller, Cerrone, the list goes on. They are well spoken, seemingly intelligent, don't seem to have much issue with CTE, despite the wars and damage they've sustained.

Also, even though Max Holloway and Gaetjhe are well known for crowd pleasing styles, they both seem mentally all there, despite those wars and damage sustained. I'm just wondering why it is that many guys don't live with obvious brain damage from years of hard sparring and fights. Is it just luck? Is it a case of those that reach the top are there for a reason, and that reason is because they can give out and sustain more damage than most. Obviously, someone with very poor punch resistance will be found out far sooner than by the time they get the chance to the reach the UFC.

 

[188912345]

I'm not sure if Holloway and Gaethje are still all there, getting some CTE-vibes from their speech.

 

[Gabe]

Stipe

 

[fedorthegoat777]

You can take some damage and get a few concussions.

After a point, there are problems. You can't just keep getting your brain smashed around. Tony Ferguson is going to be one of those cases.

 

[usernamee]

You can take some damage and get a few concussions.

After a point, there are problems. You can't just keep getting your brain smashed around. Tony Ferguson is going to be one of those cases.

also we haven't really hit those years yet with MMA where we have an abundance of guys who had long MMA careers that are now in their 65-70s

it'll be interesting to see

 

[Pequeño Corey]

I'm not sure if Holloway and Gaethje are still all there, getting some CTE-vibes from their speech.

Yea Holloway stumbles for words and repeats himself a lot. Pretty sure he says "it is what it is" so much because he can't find the words to finish the sentence.

 

[Pequeño Corey]

also we haven't really hit those years yet with MMA where we have an abundance of guys who had long MMA careers that are now in their 65-70s

it'll be interesting to see

I think about this often. If we assume that most guys in UFC 1 were in their 20's, they'll be hitting their 60's in the next 5-10 years.

 

[Chagaev]

Because we're not all built the same.

There are people with genetic variants that are predisposing them to develop dementia while other have variants that protect them - just an example.

 

[Skarsgard]

Everyone is different. It's not even like we can target a common fight style with damage. Spencer Fisher took relatively low damage compared to guys like Rob McCullough or Overeem and he's in pretty dire shape.

 

[usernamee]

I think about this often. If we assume that most guys in UFC 1 were in their 20's, they'll be hitting their 60's in the next 5-10 years.

and most of those guys weren't long time mma career guys with shitloads of fights during many many years at a high level of fighting

I think it will only get real interesting 30 years from now

 

[Spaslab]

The body is the brain's life support system. Fighters train their bodies to be in the best possible shape. Their brains have the best possible support system. Whatever damage they sustain is getting partially mitigated through healing...their bodies supporting their brains. Perhaps it is a lesson for the rest of people to learn. Want a good head? Exercise like a beast.

It also adds up with genetic predisposition for damage sustainability, other factors...

 

[RockyLockridge]

Onnit nutrition Alpha brain. Look into it.

 

[loisestrad]

Why can some people smoke two packs a day for 80 years and live to be 90, while others die of lung cancer at 40?

 

[Thepaintbucket]

Isn't CTE a progressive condition?

 

[HatKick]

I always use Bisping as an example of a fighter that's more well spoken than most non-fighters. He may not have a huge academic vocabulary but he's just good with the English language.

That said, I think all the guys you mentioned are dealing with some level of head trauma. It's just not to the degree that they can't function.

 

[Harlekin]

Holloway sometimes sounds very punch drunk and Gaethje thinks he deserves a title shot.
So both have some kind of CTE

Bisping had pretty good defense. 65% stat. That's pretty good for a retired fighter. That stat usually goes lower late in careers.
Getting past prime and no more easy fights.

 

[ricc505]

Who says they were mentally well to begin with?

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

The Holloway speech issues need to be debunked. Holloway is much easier to understand now than when he made his UFC debut, when Holloway was first in UFC like when he was 20-25 years old he was much harder to understand, lots of mumbling and talked too fast. But he has learned to talk slower and mumbles less now. His speech has actually improved a lot, I guess with lots of media training and also getting used to the cameras and interviews etc etc.

Its not CTE, he has never had clear diction, but he has improved actually, 20 year old Holloway mumbled way more, current day Holloway is much easier to understand in interviews.

 

[dildos]

it will catch upto them later..

 

[RockyLockridge]

Holloway sometimes sounds very punch drunk and Gaethje thinks he deserves a title shot.
So both have some kind of CTE

Bisping had pretty good defense. 65% stat. That's pretty good for a retired fighter. That stat usually goes lower late in careers.
Getting past prime and no more easy fights.

gaethje does deserve his title shot and will get it.