"You have to assume when there's a problem with any fighter -- with their brain, with their spine or anything to that effect. If there's a problem, anything can be career-ending. But at this point, I'm not going to speculate, I'm not going to say that's the case ... There hasn't been anything to say there's a condition in his brain. There's just something they see in the [test] and they don't know what it is and they just want to have him get it checked out. And they don't want to clear him for a fight and it could be something serious. We're not panicking at this point and we don't want anyone to panic either, but we'll see what happens."
Malki Kawa of First Round Management tells MMAFighting.com that it's still too soon to speculate as to the future of Thiago Alves after "The Pitbull" was forced to withdraw from his UFC 111 fight against Jon Fitch after failing a pre-fight CAT Scan that detected a brain "irregularity." The Brazilian is expected to undergo additional testing from brain specialists in order to further diagnose the condition -- if one exists. Meanwhile, Fitch will now fight Ben Saunders on the March 27 fight card and Alves will hopefully get cleared to return to action in the very near future. Stay tuned.
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