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

This is something that scares the shit out of me now. I had 31 Muay Thai fights with a whole heap of concussions through my 20s. Now 37yo with a young family and its always in the back my mind - wondering when it will catch up with me. It's something you just don't think about while you're living it.
 
We haven't seen a lot of them hit their 60's / 70's yet. I'm sure a bunch will be drooling in wheel chairs down the road.
 
Changeisinevitable said:
This is something that scares the shit out of me now. I had 31 Muay Thai fights with a whole heap of concussions through my 20s. Now 37yo with a young family and its always in the back my mind - wondering when it will catch up with me. It's something you just don't think about while you're living it.
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I'm at a similar age with similar number of fights under my belt across MMA, Muay Thai and Boxing at a high level.

Brain health was never spoken about in the culture, in fact you were called a pussy if you brought it up.
Gotta stay hard.

All our coaches only thought guys who got laid out unconscious multiple times had their chins compromised and might get Parkinson's later on.
The risks of shaking the brain in training over and over and the possibility of CTE developing later in life was completely unknown or disregarded.

I remember having massive headaches after wall/cage wrestling rounds, driving and slamming effectively relies so much on using your hear head to drive and pressure.
I never got knocked unconscious in a fight but did get dropped a few times and got up and continued to fight hard, who knows how bad that could have been, particularly when I had dehydrated myself significantly 24 hours before to make weight.

I stopped fighting after a combination of painful disc issues and having 2 epileptic seizures. MRI revealed a deformed blood vessel deep in my frontal lobe. Could have been there before fighting or acquired, not sure.

Took me a few years to come to terms with it and talk about it openly. My brain's inner dialogue and the side effects of seizure medication did make me feel very lost for a while there and I understand why other retired fighters don't like to talk about it.

Hopefully we can continue to learn more and more about neurology and how we can mitigate the risks for future athletes.
I'm very conflicted about coaching again, despite people begging me for knowledge.
I'm now at a point where I realize even if you told me at 18 how risky this path was, I still would have fucking done it.
Just need to help other crazy wannabe fighters understand the science behind brain health and avoid the same damage while also developing the resilience to throw down in a cage no matter the situation.
 
Benoitthegr8 said:
Overeem is the gold standard here, between MMA, KB, and hard sparring he’s been knocked unconscious (by heavyweights no less) into his 40’s. Horse meat and hormones for various 4 legged animals will leave you extremely articulate.
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That man is a scientific marvel. He's been KO'd a total of 19 fucking times if you combine his MMA and KB career. Fought at LHW and HW against the heaviest hitters for 20 years and the guy still speaks English well and that's not even his first language.
 
I love how people assume Holloway has signs of CTE because of he how talks, he has always talked like that, he’s talking Hawaiian Pidgin, a type creole it’s essentially broken English, and to put it nicely he’s from Waianae, being educated isnt really what they’re known for.
 
GoodBadHBK said:
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I was going to just post this. Its even worse if you watch his regular vids. For those who think we aren't seeing the effects of CTE now because MMA is still regularly young, you're wrong. The problem is that a lot of the fighters its effecting aren't big name fighters and fade into obscurity after fighting, so they're not going to have the spotlight on them like Chuck, Max, or Tony would.



 
I've always been of the belief that the gym wars and not properly recovering between sessions had much more to do than the blows accumulated during fights. Not to mention the possible other sports with head trauma (football, ruby, etc.) and possible street fights growing up.

But then again, all of this is an inexact science and it's a case by case basis. The truth is, we'll never truly know until the first generation of fighters from the 90s & 2000s start dying and we can examine their brains. I have a very strong feeling that most of them - if not all - will have CTE.
 
arcadeperfect said:
That man is a scientific marvel. He's been KO'd a total of 19 fucking times if you combine his MMA and KB career. Fought at LHW and HW against the heaviest hitters for 20 years and the guy still speaks English well and that's not even his first language.
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He speaks fluent English and barely has an accent, his fights were also like high speed car crashes waiting to happen. For most fighters USADA meant the end of their prime, performance goes down the gutter with bad loses, Reem was able to make adjustments while still in his mid-30’s to make a run back to a title fight, might I say he nearly beat Stipe, well all up until he decided a Poirier like guillotine was better than top position, ffs why…?
 
Benoitthegr8 said:
He speaks fluent English and barely has an accent, his fights were also like high speed car crashes waiting to happen. For most fighters USADA meant the end of their prime, performance goes down the gutter with bad loses, Reem was able to make adjustments while still in his mid-30’s to make a run back to a title fight, might I say he nearly beat Stipe, well all up until he decided a Poirier like guillotine was better than top position, ffs why…?
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Overeem's father was British-Jamaican, he lived in England for quite a while in his youth, hence his comfort in English.
Then again many Dutch people are amazing with languages, and most I've met can speak English at a high level, even fighters.

I would also think that Overeem did not take a lot of damage in training, he has said in a few interviews (and it's also seen in his documentary series) he prefers to train with guys who just flow in training, not trying to win in the gym.
He also has a strong philosophy that he should fight as often as possible, which would encourage taking less damage in training, while also getting experience being comfortable in the arena.
 
Prazeres said:
About Carwin, didn't he and Schaub talk about how they used to fuck each other up in sparring, which is where he probably took most of the damage.
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I'd believe it... if it was anyone but Schaub.

Maybe the CTE came from simply listening to him on a daily basis.
 
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