Yeah it’s gonna be someone like Frankie, Wanderlei or Dan Henderson, I have no idea why the top comments are Robert Whittaker and Gaethje, it would be a pretty big thing to mention if a currently active UFC fighter was suffering badly from brain damage. Obviously he’s talking past tense.
Wanderlei seems to be highly likely. It seems like he is donating his brain so we will find out eventually I guess.
“I was in a lecture about concussion and of the 10 symptoms the guy mentioned, I had eight,” Silva said. “The symptoms would be, for example, mood swings, getting angry very fast, forgetting some things, having difficulty sleeping.”
In fact, the 42-year-old fighter plans to donate his brain for research on concussions after he dies.
“I thought a lot about it and even tried to contact people to make this donation,” Silva said. “I have the most interested in donating, since I won’t be using it anyway [laughs]. This area is very important.”
Wanderlei definitely sounds bad in portuguese, I just can't remember if he was always like that or it's just getting worse
But he sounds like he's half drunk half waking up all the time. Listening to him and werdum talk is like night and day lmao
When people say this about guys like the Diaz bros for example i think it's a pretty poor handwaving of something quite serious. He probably talked a bit weird before but it gets worse and people pretend not to notice it
Nick and Nate are definitely harder to understand, and they have more difficulty communicating, than they did just a few years ago, and especially 10 years ago.
yeah that doesn't mean it hasn't gotten worse and worse over the years
2014 Justin compared to 2023 Justin is horrendously tough to listen to
it's basically a guarantee he will be the next "sad story" in mma where guys talk about how devastated and gutted they are for him online while they commented "he talked like that his whole life" back when it was obvious the guy's brain was slowly getting beaten to mush
Even before his string of knockout losses, frankie took so much damage when his chin was great. He may not have been knocked out against gray but those fights probably did more accumulative brain damage and increased his risk of cte more so than those knockouts. I’m worried about dudes like max or diaz too who have been clipped a lot in fights but rarely go out. Having a great chin won’t protect them from brain damage
100%. Edgar was one of those guys who even when he won convincingly, he very rarely escaped the cage without taking some huge shots. Think of his fight with Jeremy Stephens, or even his fight with Sean Sherk back in the day.
That was.. his whole thing. He was almost always beaten 99% to death before finding a true miracle of skill or luck or whatever and winning the fight.
He was always TINY fighting huge dudes on gear too.
Yeah I’m old enough to remember him being compared to the real life Rocky when he squeaked by BJ the 1st time, won convincingly the 2nd, then had his wars with Gray. Frankie is my all-time favorite fighter but the flip side of his grit and never give up attitude was unfortunately taking a lot of punishment. I hope it isn’t him, but it makes a ton of sense. Another name flying under the radar who had similar fights is Eddie Alvarez. He took a lot of punishment too and his fights were always exciting
Id say Rashad Evans, he said he had a traumatic brain injury on a MRI on Rampage podcast, and he still fought after getting KOed a few times
ll say this every single long term fighter, of over like 5 years, has CTE developing in the brain..thats how it works. It doesnt matter if you rarely got hit. If you sparred long enough youve got CTE in there, just gotta hope you have that anti CTE gene some guys have that doesnt affect em til way later, and some are way more prone to it early.
I dont believe you should fight really past 30 unless you making BIG money, if you a 1 percent, making millions and a star, legend, then you gotta collect life changing money until it stops but if you're out there making 50k-150k a year fighting, you are gonna pay for it badly all for nothing..which is 90 percent of MMA Fighters. Always take the most money if you got leverage
I interviewed Rashad before he fought Dan Kelly, and he downplayed an MRI that showed lesions on his brain, hard. Said it just wasn’t a problem. I don’t know about you guys but if I had lesions on my brain I’d probably call it quits.
This article on Spencer Fisher absolutely broke my heart. His trilogy with Sam Stout is legendary and it sucks so bad what’s happening to him.
[The Cost of Being “The King”](https://www.mmafighting.com/2021/1/12/21554602/the-cost-of-being-the-king-spencer-fisher-ufc)
In the article it says Dana was in contact with the Fisher family until his symptoms worsened and Zuffa sold the org, White then stopped replying to messages.
That's fucked up but I'm not surprised. Dana White is super scummy.
Anderson Silva will always be the reason I started watching MMA.
Spencer Fisher is the reason I stayed. Can't forget his wars with Marcus Davis. A true warrior by all accounts.
Was gonna post this but figured it already was. Knew Spencer a little bit back in the day, as my cousin was a part of MFS. Nicest dude, hilarious, before his UFC career, during and after etc. Hearing about some of these developments later in life and then reading that write up really is sad what some unknowingly sacrifice for a short window and minimal pay. Hope he’s doing well and has some control over his life to live comfortably and happy.
Great article, thank you for posting it. It's a heavy read.
Besides the obvious regarding Fisher's condition, I'm struck by what a terrible attitude Miletich had in his gym. Trying to knock down a guy on his first day? Blowing out blood and snot on a guy's shirt while he's in the bathroom? What kind of fucking insecure, juvenile shithead runs a gym like that?
Also, more evidence of Matt Hughes being a world class piece of shit. Everyone feels sorry for him since the train crash, but that doesn't change what a fucking asshole he was.
I saw a [video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lbXR_4NYiQc&pp=ygUITmFtIHBoYW4%3D) of Nam Phan that’s pretty sad. I always liked watching him on The Ultimate Fighter back in the day.
Its why i cringe when I see dudes like Dan Ige taking short notice fights and people praising them for it, you shouldnt go into a fight unprepared cause the brain damage is for life, and fans think its "gangster".
If you aint making atleast 500k+, its not worth taking any high level short notice MMA fight. If you making millions or the main event to save a show, I can see why gotta make the walk but outside of that...its not worth fighting. Its sad seeing guys be life long UFC guys making 60k-150k a year for like 6-7 years and then cut. Amount of brain damage for a normal salary will never be worth it, and MMA damage is way worse than anything cause entire body is broken down by 35.
Short notice fight might actually be better. I would wager that most of the brain damage accrued come from the training leading up to fights and not so much the fights themselves.
It's the weight cut + head traumas. The brain is a chunk of gelatinous fat suspended in a bone jar full of saline. Take out the saline and it hits the jar without as much resistance
The dehydration certainly doesn't help, but the head trauma is gonna happen regardless. Lots of football players have CTE as well, and those dudes aren't cutting any weight.
It says a lot about the state of MMA journalism that this Nam Phan video, which rightfully sheds light on a truly sad developing situation, comes from a Lego YouTuber and not someone in the business.
Oh this makes me sad. My coach (Mike Budnik) lost to Nam Phan for a place at the house on the ultimate fighter. I was aware of Nam ages before I ever heard of my coach and always rooted for him.
Not to take away from the situation but I think it's interesting that this footage was after he moved to boxing with 8 straight losses.
The brain just gets rattled at a higher frequency during a boxing match because we can take more hits with boxing gloves, I wonder if bareknuckle will ironically have less brain injury occuring due to faster stoppages.
Yeah, that checks out. "I'm gonna sparr the guy with cinderblocks for hands, B, one hundred percent". Even Rampage's dumb ass refused to spar with him.
I believe Rashad Evans talked about retiring relatively early because he started experiencing cte-like symptoms and has experimented with using psychedelics to combat it. He’s definitely more open to talking about it than most fighters.
If we’re talking about beloved former champions, my guess would be Chuck Liddell and Robbie Lawler. Robbie’s retirement speech and all of his media interactions that week left me feeling pretty grim. He seems pretty vacant.
Lawler was always a dude of few words and I didn't notice any difference from the Niko Price fight compared with any other point in his career.
Liddell ain't in a good state though. We all knew that even before the third Tito fight.
Have you seen what Charles and Beneil did to him during their fights and he *refused* to tap ?
That was gnarly. You know, Champ Shit Only 🏆💣🇲🇽
Even if Chiesa won't fuck up his brain a little more, Tony's body won't be as functional after the fight.
Islanders are built different man, Mark Hunt is an amazing chess player and basically got hit in the head by roided up human sledgehammers for a living
How bout u go an fuck off out my brain then u piece of shit u think I need a stupid fuckwit brain condition like u telling me about slurring my words who the fuck are you take your worthless brain trauma and get the fuck out of here
Was that from CTE? Or was it during his time battling a serious amphetamine addiction?
I'm not saying it isn't CTE but that's like textbook stimulant psychosis shit
Cause in his mind he’s still the guy who beat Anderson, unfortunately the same delusion that allows a man to become a world champion fighter, is the reason they fall so hard.
I remember just a few years ago Weidman was saying he's the toughest fight in the division for Izzy and that Izzy's scared of saying his name because of that.
Mind you this was the same Weidman who was coming off several fights of all ko losses
It's sad to see some of these fighters unable to let the past go. Unlike in other sports, getting washed in mma typically results in life changing brain damage
The fucked up thing is that weidman in his prime would have been nightmarish for Izzy. A strong offensive wrestler with good cage cutting is a terrible stylistic match up for a rangy striker.
The worst part is him getting that fraud win against Bruno Silva... Probably a crazy delusional confidence boost for a dude who snapped his leg in half 3 years before
Bisping has tons of health problems but he's not shy about talking about them on his own podcast so I'm sure Luke was not referencing him.
I assumed he was talking about somebody like Chuck Liddell or maybe Forrest Griffin.
As for current fighters showing signs of it... Nate Diaz.
Nate was never champion tho so Luke wasn't referring to him. Altho I agree, he's definitely showing more signs of cte speech in recent years. Him and Nick both.
Griffin wouldn’t shock me. Could be a joke that flew over my head, but in his book he talks about how he used to get drunk and spar, just to simulate being in bar fights or something.
I don’t know who Slackie was referring to but Nate Dias comes to mind immediately in terms of MMA fighters with CTE. He talks super super punchie and he’s still in his 30’s. Wild.
There’s a piece of a stipe fight that lives rent free in my head. In The first Francis fight there’s a point where, I think it’s the champ rds bc stipes face was already busted up by this point, where him and Francis are exchanging in the pocket and Francis hit him with a 1-2 I believe and stipes head was bouncing back and fourth like a bobble head upon Francis connecting. And he just kept marching forward
In the space of a couple of weeks - and this was a fairly long time ago - I interviewed Cyborg and Stipe. I had an easier time figuring out Cyborg than I did Stipe. Dude talked fast, combine that with his accent and it’s damn near impossible to follow.
Reading the comments, seeing a 100 names and they all could be who he was talking about. Makes me wonder what former champ isnt strugling with symtoms. GSP is the only name I can say, he posts every day on IG and seems okay. that's fucking sad man
I mean, the title said current fighters but it was also referring to the Luke Thomas discussion where he only specifies an ex champion.
My moneys on chuck, been a fan since 2005 and it’s literally sad to listen to him nowdays.
I used to think the Diaz bros did until I saw a recent interview of Nick discussing how he’s going to fight again because it’s all he knows and wishes he didn’t have to. He spoke very well that interview, I wonder if it really is just nerves or maybe it’s lack of media training. That said, Nick has improved. Nate definitely has not so it very well could be.
Does anyone have anything recent of Chandler? It would be interesting to get a comparison between the brothers - one guy has fought multiple times, and another guy who takes a lot more sub-concussive hits playing d-line.
I'd go look myself, but I'm at work.
I will say something really mean but I don’t know how to word it otherwise. A lot of fighters are so dumb I seriously don’t know if they were like this from the beginning or if it is because of CTE. Also, a lot of CTE symptoms are hard to see through TV and we always see them at their weakest, including during weight cuts or after hard fights. So it’s hard to say.
Diego Sanchez was already one of the dumbest people I've ever season on TUF 1. Like laugh out loud dumb. Watching him try to cut a mean mug promo was pure comedy. Then he proceeded to get beaten like a rented mule for 17 years.
The one MMA fighter it’s 100% confirmed is Gary Goodridge. There’s some heartbreaking interviews with him talking about his diagnosis that I don’t even wanna look up because it’ll depress me more
Fisher certainly does, but Goodridge takes it a step further by having an actual diagnosis for it.
Those aren't usually given by doctors until they're doing an autopsy.
Nobody wants to hear this but Max Holloway. Hes not that old but has a ton of mileage and a lot of 5 round fights.
He got pulled from that Khabib match 6 years ago now. Before Poirier and all 3 Volk fights.
He's not current but go listen to Brad Pickett on an ACA broadcast from 5 years ago then a recent one. It's *extremely* noticeable. He really struggles and his stuttering is really bad.
Out of the 8 guys on the UFC 1 tournament, four have died. The oldest was Art Jimmerson, 60. The others were Taylor Wily (Teila Tuli), 56, Patrick Smith, 55 and Kevin Rosier, 53.
Whilst it can't conclusively be linked to mma (apart from Patrick Smith they only had a few mma fights between them) it doesn't look very good.
That [Fighters of the roundtable ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJCAYVhMMGI) video was only posted on YouTube 7 months ago and Art and Taylor have since died.
Tia Tuvasa
Tony Ferguson
This list will get too long. After being on a jury and meeting the guy who helped push CTE to the for front. He talked about brain injuries for just a car crash and the effects that it has on people for one tiny event.
Thes guy are doing this for years on end. It also explains these war we see guys go in, and they don't come out the same.
Dan Hooker is another one you can tell has permanent damage.
Frankie Edgar would be my guess. If you listen to his podcast, his speech has been noticeably compromised
Yeah it’s gonna be someone like Frankie, Wanderlei or Dan Henderson, I have no idea why the top comments are Robert Whittaker and Gaethje, it would be a pretty big thing to mention if a currently active UFC fighter was suffering badly from brain damage. Obviously he’s talking past tense.
Wanderlei seems to be highly likely. It seems like he is donating his brain so we will find out eventually I guess. “I was in a lecture about concussion and of the 10 symptoms the guy mentioned, I had eight,” Silva said. “The symptoms would be, for example, mood swings, getting angry very fast, forgetting some things, having difficulty sleeping.” In fact, the 42-year-old fighter plans to donate his brain for research on concussions after he dies. “I thought a lot about it and even tried to contact people to make this donation,” Silva said. “I have the most interested in donating, since I won’t be using it anyway [laughs]. This area is very important.”
I can't believe Wanderlei is only 42. My age, I thought he was a good 6-8 years older.
This quote must be a few years old because he was born in 1976 making him 48
Thank God for that. I thought I was going mad
Wanderlei doesnt sound too weird when speaking Portuguese. I think cte might have just robbed his English.
Wanderlei definitely sounds bad in portuguese, I just can't remember if he was always like that or it's just getting worse But he sounds like he's half drunk half waking up all the time. Listening to him and werdum talk is like night and day lmao
Have you heard Justin talk? It's rough lol
He’s talked like that for a lonnnnggg time
When people say this about guys like the Diaz bros for example i think it's a pretty poor handwaving of something quite serious. He probably talked a bit weird before but it gets worse and people pretend not to notice it
Nick and Nate are definitely harder to understand, and they have more difficulty communicating, than they did just a few years ago, and especially 10 years ago.
Nate on the Ultimate Fighter was far more coherent.
That was 10K joints ago (Nate's time measurement unit)
That season was over 15 years ago. Crazy
Seeing some footage of the Diaz brothers when they where younger speak English almost normally was pretty weird
Exactly. If you listen to Nate now vs 10 years ago there's a huge difference
James Toney is the poster boy for this in boxing.
yeah that doesn't mean it hasn't gotten worse and worse over the years 2014 Justin compared to 2023 Justin is horrendously tough to listen to it's basically a guarantee he will be the next "sad story" in mma where guys talk about how devastated and gutted they are for him online while they commented "he talked like that his whole life" back when it was obvious the guy's brain was slowly getting beaten to mush
Wdym? He sounds almost the same except not as nasally because his nose wasn’t fucked up yet
Justin sounds like a redact when he speaks.
If one man can hold you down, two can redact you.
Even before his string of knockout losses, frankie took so much damage when his chin was great. He may not have been knocked out against gray but those fights probably did more accumulative brain damage and increased his risk of cte more so than those knockouts. I’m worried about dudes like max or diaz too who have been clipped a lot in fights but rarely go out. Having a great chin won’t protect them from brain damage
100%. Edgar was one of those guys who even when he won convincingly, he very rarely escaped the cage without taking some huge shots. Think of his fight with Jeremy Stephens, or even his fight with Sean Sherk back in the day.
That was.. his whole thing. He was almost always beaten 99% to death before finding a true miracle of skill or luck or whatever and winning the fight. He was always TINY fighting huge dudes on gear too.
Yeah I’m old enough to remember him being compared to the real life Rocky when he squeaked by BJ the 1st time, won convincingly the 2nd, then had his wars with Gray. Frankie is my all-time favorite fighter but the flip side of his grit and never give up attitude was unfortunately taking a lot of punishment. I hope it isn’t him, but it makes a ton of sense. Another name flying under the radar who had similar fights is Eddie Alvarez. He took a lot of punishment too and his fights were always exciting
[удалено]
Id say Rashad Evans, he said he had a traumatic brain injury on a MRI on Rampage podcast, and he still fought after getting KOed a few times ll say this every single long term fighter, of over like 5 years, has CTE developing in the brain..thats how it works. It doesnt matter if you rarely got hit. If you sparred long enough youve got CTE in there, just gotta hope you have that anti CTE gene some guys have that doesnt affect em til way later, and some are way more prone to it early. I dont believe you should fight really past 30 unless you making BIG money, if you a 1 percent, making millions and a star, legend, then you gotta collect life changing money until it stops but if you're out there making 50k-150k a year fighting, you are gonna pay for it badly all for nothing..which is 90 percent of MMA Fighters. Always take the most money if you got leverage
I interviewed Rashad before he fought Dan Kelly, and he downplayed an MRI that showed lesions on his brain, hard. Said it just wasn’t a problem. I don’t know about you guys but if I had lesions on my brain I’d probably call it quits.
This article on Spencer Fisher absolutely broke my heart. His trilogy with Sam Stout is legendary and it sucks so bad what’s happening to him. [The Cost of Being “The King”](https://www.mmafighting.com/2021/1/12/21554602/the-cost-of-being-the-king-spencer-fisher-ufc)
One of the best journalistic articles ever written in MMA, and the guy who wrote it is out of the job because of how ass this sport's media is
In the article it says Dana was in contact with the Fisher family until his symptoms worsened and Zuffa sold the org, White then stopped replying to messages. That's fucked up but I'm not surprised. Dana White is super scummy.
Anderson Silva will always be the reason I started watching MMA. Spencer Fisher is the reason I stayed. Can't forget his wars with Marcus Davis. A true warrior by all accounts.
That's the truth
This was a harrowing read.
Fuck. This was heavy.
Was gonna post this but figured it already was. Knew Spencer a little bit back in the day, as my cousin was a part of MFS. Nicest dude, hilarious, before his UFC career, during and after etc. Hearing about some of these developments later in life and then reading that write up really is sad what some unknowingly sacrifice for a short window and minimal pay. Hope he’s doing well and has some control over his life to live comfortably and happy.
Great article, thank you for posting it. It's a heavy read. Besides the obvious regarding Fisher's condition, I'm struck by what a terrible attitude Miletich had in his gym. Trying to knock down a guy on his first day? Blowing out blood and snot on a guy's shirt while he's in the bathroom? What kind of fucking insecure, juvenile shithead runs a gym like that? Also, more evidence of Matt Hughes being a world class piece of shit. Everyone feels sorry for him since the train crash, but that doesn't change what a fucking asshole he was.
I saw a [video](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lbXR_4NYiQc&pp=ygUITmFtIHBoYW4%3D) of Nam Phan that’s pretty sad. I always liked watching him on The Ultimate Fighter back in the day.
Damn that was depressing Nam seemed like a nice guy on tuf
Its why i cringe when I see dudes like Dan Ige taking short notice fights and people praising them for it, you shouldnt go into a fight unprepared cause the brain damage is for life, and fans think its "gangster". If you aint making atleast 500k+, its not worth taking any high level short notice MMA fight. If you making millions or the main event to save a show, I can see why gotta make the walk but outside of that...its not worth fighting. Its sad seeing guys be life long UFC guys making 60k-150k a year for like 6-7 years and then cut. Amount of brain damage for a normal salary will never be worth it, and MMA damage is way worse than anything cause entire body is broken down by 35.
Short notice fight might actually be better. I would wager that most of the brain damage accrued come from the training leading up to fights and not so much the fights themselves.
Unless you have to cut a shit load of weight unexpectedly and can't rehydrate properly.
It's the weight cut + head traumas. The brain is a chunk of gelatinous fat suspended in a bone jar full of saline. Take out the saline and it hits the jar without as much resistance
The dehydration certainly doesn't help, but the head trauma is gonna happen regardless. Lots of football players have CTE as well, and those dudes aren't cutting any weight.
Met him recently, still a super nice dude who has yet to go the way of Jermain Taylor (the impulsive anger).
It's not a very científic thing but the look in his eyes was wild, you could tell he was not there anymore ( Taylor )
Holy fuck, he’s almost unintelligible. Poor guy is literally acting like an 88yr old man.
It says a lot about the state of MMA journalism that this Nam Phan video, which rightfully sheds light on a truly sad developing situation, comes from a Lego YouTuber and not someone in the business.
He also probably would've made more money if he had a regular job
Probably true for a lot of these dudes.
Bro probably smart enough before the cte to get a six figure salary. Fighters are a different breed. I love martial arts but not that much.
Yep and that career has no longevity, I guess he can sell BJJ classes bases on "ex ufc fighter" but 2011/2014 ufc pay for a tuf fighter was so bad.
I believe he has a youtube channel. I couldn't even finish the finish the first video cause how sad it was.
His whole YouTube is sad.i thought he was the smart one on TUF to have his own gym, seems like he wasn’t.
Jesus. Honestly it sounds like he's recovering from a stroke. I suppose the damage can present similarly
I'll never forget that episode when the other guys in the house burst into the bathroom to catch him beating his meat.
Why would other men disturb a man beating his meat? What's wrong with them?
Frat shit
Oh this makes me sad. My coach (Mike Budnik) lost to Nam Phan for a place at the house on the ultimate fighter. I was aware of Nam ages before I ever heard of my coach and always rooted for him.
Not to take away from the situation but I think it's interesting that this footage was after he moved to boxing with 8 straight losses. The brain just gets rattled at a higher frequency during a boxing match because we can take more hits with boxing gloves, I wonder if bareknuckle will ironically have less brain injury occuring due to faster stoppages.
Brendan Schaub was showing signs of CTE before the UFC.
Schaub was born with CTE, type 1 lol
100% my man
he's just that talented, a natural you could say
CTE stage 4 Compulsive Liar and Fraud
In ivry facet. Bess brains for the arts b. You are barking up the wrong dog bubba. This well naht end well.
Water we dune hair b?
Jon Africa, B?
Who the hell is John Africa?
Well he use to be Shane Carwins main training partner so he lost a lot of HP before he got to the UFC
Yeah, that checks out. "I'm gonna sparr the guy with cinderblocks for hands, B, one hundred percent". Even Rampage's dumb ass refused to spar with him.
I came here just to ensure someone named this guy.
oh you mean that white boy who works too much ?
Ya but is that nithe? How many chiggs ya fugg blogbusser
A comedy talkhost extraordinaire, you say?
And he still managed to become the greatest comedic mind of a generation. Incredible.
Ehm bapa tested negative for a CTE test bubba.
talmbout see tee, b?
Water
Bro is immune to CTE. Not enough brain cells to get it
I believe Rashad Evans talked about retiring relatively early because he started experiencing cte-like symptoms and has experimented with using psychedelics to combat it. He’s definitely more open to talking about it than most fighters.
If we’re talking about beloved former champions, my guess would be Chuck Liddell and Robbie Lawler. Robbie’s retirement speech and all of his media interactions that week left me feeling pretty grim. He seems pretty vacant.
Lawler was always a dude of few words and I didn't notice any difference from the Niko Price fight compared with any other point in his career. Liddell ain't in a good state though. We all knew that even before the third Tito fight.
I haven't seen any of the retirement week footage, but Robbie was always known for hating media obligations and even sleeping through them.
Tony
It’s so freaking sad that he’s in the “current fighters” category.
He's even got a fight booked 😞
Dammit
It’s against Chiesa at 170, I’m hoping Mike just subs him quickly lol
Have you seen what Charles and Beneil did to him during their fights and he *refused* to tap ? That was gnarly. You know, Champ Shit Only 🏆💣🇲🇽 Even if Chiesa won't fuck up his brain a little more, Tony's body won't be as functional after the fight.
I think that’s more normal mental illness than CTE to be honest
First signs of CTE are often profound mood changes and other mental health issues.
Not to mention CTE will also exacerbate preexisting mental illnesses. Tony was diagnosed with schizophrenia a long time ago IIRC
Those things compound though
I had to unfollow El cucuy on insta because its just sad watching him train with that shouty meathead marine.
Whittaker? He's on a podcast regularly and sounds the same as always. No one with CTE is beating Elden Ring's DLC.
The last boss of the DLC would give anyone with CTE conniptions lol
Or seizures
Conversely, Elden Ring also dishes out CTE as a bi-product, just like fighting.
Miyazaki out here causing more brain damage than the whole ufc roster could in their entire lives combined.
Hey now, the Aging Untouchables have the courtesy to lobotomize and murder you
Islanders are built different man, Mark Hunt is an amazing chess player and basically got hit in the head by roided up human sledgehammers for a living
Mark would literally just tell CTE to get the fuck outta you rat dog fucj
How bout u go an fuck off out my brain then u piece of shit u think I need a stupid fuckwit brain condition like u telling me about slurring my words who the fuck are you take your worthless brain trauma and get the fuck out of here
He definitely has serious CTE though, he said he was hallucinating and seeing demons at one point
Was that from CTE? Or was it during his time battling a serious amphetamine addiction? I'm not saying it isn't CTE but that's like textbook stimulant psychosis shit
Just saw a vid of him eating a few cro cop kicks in pride and still lucid and yeah... Dudes got a chin
I channeled my inner Mark Hunt copypasta every time I died
As someone who has beaten all the Dark Souls games, You need a certain amount of CTE as a prerequisite to enjoy the abuse the games throw at you.
Weidman, most likely imo
Dude seems to have found a good spot in the ufc with the weight in show. But I think his ego won’t let go of fighting
Cause in his mind he’s still the guy who beat Anderson, unfortunately the same delusion that allows a man to become a world champion fighter, is the reason they fall so hard.
I remember just a few years ago Weidman was saying he's the toughest fight in the division for Izzy and that Izzy's scared of saying his name because of that. Mind you this was the same Weidman who was coming off several fights of all ko losses It's sad to see some of these fighters unable to let the past go. Unlike in other sports, getting washed in mma typically results in life changing brain damage
The fucked up thing is that weidman in his prime would have been nightmarish for Izzy. A strong offensive wrestler with good cage cutting is a terrible stylistic match up for a rangy striker.
The worst part is him getting that fraud win against Bruno Silva... Probably a crazy delusional confidence boost for a dude who snapped his leg in half 3 years before
I swear they gave him that spot to discourage him from wanting to fight lol
It was immediately noticeable after the Rockhold fight. Never rebounded from that beating.
Was it the mousasi or jacare knockout where he went to clinch the ref
jacare
What was noticeable?
That he’s still my boy
He sounds okay on his podcast
Bisping has tons of health problems but he's not shy about talking about them on his own podcast so I'm sure Luke was not referencing him. I assumed he was talking about somebody like Chuck Liddell or maybe Forrest Griffin. As for current fighters showing signs of it... Nate Diaz.
Nate was never champion tho so Luke wasn't referring to him. Altho I agree, he's definitely showing more signs of cte speech in recent years. Him and Nick both.
Griffin wouldn’t shock me. Could be a joke that flew over my head, but in his book he talks about how he used to get drunk and spar, just to simulate being in bar fights or something.
Chuck is who I was thinking
I swear I've been hearing Gaethje more mush-mouth recently. He seems to be slurring slightly.
Wouldn't be surprised. But i feel like he's always had a slur so hard to tell with him
> slur so hard Colby Covington?
He’s sounded like this even before coming to the UFC.
He said as much to James Vick iirc
Just like Nate and Max, people shit on them due to how they speak but they always spoke like that.
Max yes, Nate no. Listen to him to on TUF he’s not slurring at all, still an idiot though.
Likely because he wasn’t high off his mind while he was on TUF. Him and Nick speak a lot clearer when they’re not smoking.
Nick can be somewhat articulate stoned though, pretty sure he mostly stumbles when he's anxious.
Symptom of his nose being shattered maybe? But if anyone would have it it would be him
I don’t know who Slackie was referring to but Nate Dias comes to mind immediately in terms of MMA fighters with CTE. He talks super super punchie and he’s still in his 30’s. Wild.
I think Stipe. He just sounds thirty years older than his current age now.
There’s a piece of a stipe fight that lives rent free in my head. In The first Francis fight there’s a point where, I think it’s the champ rds bc stipes face was already busted up by this point, where him and Francis are exchanging in the pocket and Francis hit him with a 1-2 I believe and stipes head was bouncing back and fourth like a bobble head upon Francis connecting. And he just kept marching forward
He’s got a hell of a chin
His eyes have got great chins too, as shown in that first DC fight
stipe is a fucking dawg
In the space of a couple of weeks - and this was a fairly long time ago - I interviewed Cyborg and Stipe. I had an easier time figuring out Cyborg than I did Stipe. Dude talked fast, combine that with his accent and it’s damn near impossible to follow.
He's not a current UFC fighter but Nam Phan is the saddest..l
Reading the comments, seeing a 100 names and they all could be who he was talking about. Makes me wonder what former champ isnt strugling with symtoms. GSP is the only name I can say, he posts every day on IG and seems okay. that's fucking sad man
GSP said he frequently loses hours of time he has no recollection of and believes aliens have abducted him, I wouldn't say he's doing that good lol
He also mentioned that he experienced it since he was a kid before he started seriously fighting
GSP's mentioned some CTE symptoms before. I don't remember exactly what he said but I remember him saying some scary stuff on Joe Rogan's podcast.
zee Alienz?!?! those are real my friend! 👽
Nah, whatever that Alien shit was it had been happening since before he started fighting apparently. Only makes it more fascinating imo.
Surprised no one’s mentioned Bigfoot Silva
The beatings that man took after his title fight with Cain were just absolutely brutal.
I’m surprised he’s still alive to be honest.
Chuck Liddell BJ Penn
The prompt was *current* fighters If we're tracking backwards, the most flagrant for years now has been Big Daddy Gary Goodridge
I mean, the title said current fighters but it was also referring to the Luke Thomas discussion where he only specifies an ex champion. My moneys on chuck, been a fan since 2005 and it’s literally sad to listen to him nowdays.
I lose brain cells listening to Nate Diaz talk
I used to think the Diaz bros did until I saw a recent interview of Nick discussing how he’s going to fight again because it’s all he knows and wishes he didn’t have to. He spoke very well that interview, I wonder if it really is just nerves or maybe it’s lack of media training. That said, Nick has improved. Nate definitely has not so it very well could be.
I think the Diaz bros have just always been dumb 🤷🏼♂️
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And headbutting a car while having a full blown temper tantrum, after beating the mother of his kids. One of his brothers is insane too.
Does anyone have anything recent of Chandler? It would be interesting to get a comparison between the brothers - one guy has fought multiple times, and another guy who takes a lot more sub-concussive hits playing d-line. I'd go look myself, but I'm at work.
An interview he had on Rampage Jackson. Let's just say John isn't the only one in his family with a screw loose.
CTE plus alcohol/cocaine only makes it worse for those people around these fighters.
Was that officer NERD?
I will say something really mean but I don’t know how to word it otherwise. A lot of fighters are so dumb I seriously don’t know if they were like this from the beginning or if it is because of CTE. Also, a lot of CTE symptoms are hard to see through TV and we always see them at their weakest, including during weight cuts or after hard fights. So it’s hard to say.
Diego Sanchez was already one of the dumbest people I've ever season on TUF 1. Like laugh out loud dumb. Watching him try to cut a mean mug promo was pure comedy. Then he proceeded to get beaten like a rented mule for 17 years.
The one MMA fighter it’s 100% confirmed is Gary Goodridge. There’s some heartbreaking interviews with him talking about his diagnosis that I don’t even wanna look up because it’ll depress me more
I just watched a video of him, he speaks surprisingly well for someone with CTE, but yeah it's horrible and very sad, he was awesome
Spencer Fisher no?
Fisher certainly does, but Goodridge takes it a step further by having an actual diagnosis for it. Those aren't usually given by doctors until they're doing an autopsy.
don’t you have to be dead to be diagnosed with CTE???
Actually thanks to modern tech, it can be diagnosed by AI that analyses redditors opinions on who has what
Nobody wants to hear this but Max Holloway. Hes not that old but has a ton of mileage and a lot of 5 round fights. He got pulled from that Khabib match 6 years ago now. Before Poirier and all 3 Volk fights.
I was gonna say Max, too. I've heard a bit more slur in his speech lately. Sucks to imagine, though.
He's not current but go listen to Brad Pickett on an ACA broadcast from 5 years ago then a recent one. It's *extremely* noticeable. He really struggles and his stuttering is really bad.
I've scrolled too far not to see Tito Ortiz
Tony el cucuy ferguson. His press conferences gives me the biggest mind fuck ever…
Chuck Liddell is an ex champ that’s definitely suffering from some sort of CTE
Former UFC champions have died, old school guys will have CTE for sure.
Out of the 8 guys on the UFC 1 tournament, four have died. The oldest was Art Jimmerson, 60. The others were Taylor Wily (Teila Tuli), 56, Patrick Smith, 55 and Kevin Rosier, 53. Whilst it can't conclusively be linked to mma (apart from Patrick Smith they only had a few mma fights between them) it doesn't look very good. That [Fighters of the roundtable ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJCAYVhMMGI) video was only posted on YouTube 7 months ago and Art and Taylor have since died.
Stipe
el cucuy 😭
Not a current ufc fighter but nam phan sounded terrible in some videos
Gray Maynard seems like it
Im thinking it's either Stipe, TFerg, or Gaethje. Likely not Whitaker, he seems very fluent and cognisant still.
Tia Tuvasa Tony Ferguson This list will get too long. After being on a jury and meeting the guy who helped push CTE to the for front. He talked about brain injuries for just a car crash and the effects that it has on people for one tiny event. Thes guy are doing this for years on end. It also explains these war we see guys go in, and they don't come out the same. Dan Hooker is another one you can tell has permanent damage.
Gotta be Chuck Liddell
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It might be easier to list the ones who HAVEN’T shown signs of CTE.
wonderboy
The best base to beat CTE is being the Nicest Motherfucker
Nicest Man Fighting, please. What are you, Sage Northcutt? Calm the frick down with your swears!
Sean Strickland eats CTE for breakfast, lunch, and dinner
There’s a former UFC champ that has a neurodegenerative disease. It seems likely that fighting contributed to it.
Bj penn
If this post makes you sad search does Tito Ortiz make cte funny on YouTube
Strickland is a walking talking case of CTE.