FanPost

A few thoughts on Bellator 149 & Aging Fighters

Gary "Big Daddy" Goodridge is 50 years old and has extreme difficulty in remembering what he needs to do on a regular basis, with symptoms growing steadily worse. If you were able to see the Inside MMA interview they did a few weeks ago you'll know what I'm talking about.

Goodridge is a legend among MMA fans, especially anyone from the early UFC or PRIDE FC days. His kick boxing record was 12-24-2 with 14 knock out losses. His MMA record was 23-23-1 with 11 knock out losses for 25 total knock out losses with untold damage from sparring and accumulated damage from fights from where he wasn't finished.

Concussions in sports have become a hot topic in recent times; main stream media reports, Hollywood feature films and multiple books written on the subject. There are more experienced writers and experts who can inform far better than I can. It should be enough to know that we need to aware of these issues and how they relate to our fair sport we irrationally follow and love.

Goodridge is arguably the worse case scenario with his debilitating condition that can happen in MMA. There have been a handful of deaths, mostly from botched weight cuts or underlying medical issues, but those situations don't see a persons quality of life suffer and slowly deteriorate. He will be a constant reminder of the potential cost of competing.

Google Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or Dementia Pugilistica if you want to learn more. You can read a short article by Douglas Gould, Ph.D from Ohio State University on the link between Dementia Pugilistica and Alzheimer's. http://www.neuroanatomy.org/2010/005_007.pdf

Concussions and brain injury has affected the careers of multiple UFC competitors including who might be the highest profile in TJ Grant, a man who should have fought for a UFC title. Multiple articles have covered his plans to return, his continued medical issues and his debt and financial issues since his departure from MMA.

Current UFC lightweight Al Iaquinta is on a 4 fight win streak but hasn't competed since April of 2015. I like many fans was curious until I saw that he has been dealing with post concussion issues himself on Inside MMA (once again).

I'm sure there are many more to add to this list I'm sure, even if there is not clear documentation. Mark Hunt, Kazushi Sakuraba, Junior Dos Santos, Andre Arlovski, Roy Nelson are all fighters I have concern for their long term brain health. The fact that the UFC repeats stats of how many times Nelson has been hit in the head with significant strikes during their broadcasts is disturbing and frankly repugnant.

I know Sakuraba is a grown man, but he's been knocked out and taken so much damage... I question... everything about that fight for Rizin... Nothing more to be said.

But on to Bellator 149; there are 18 bouts on the card with the top 4 competitors having a combined age of 181 years. Between the 4 of them they competed 74 total times not including exhibition bouts or boxing or kickboxing matches or even street fighting. Royce was stopped just once by strikes, Dhafir Harris (DaDa 5000) only has 2 pro fights, Kevin Ferguson (Kimbo Slice) has been stopped 3 times by strikes including his TUF fight and Shamrock has been stopped via strikes or accumulated damage 10 times. But he's taken untold damage from his wars and brawls, think of his Don Frye fight for example.

These are grown men who can make their own decisions and even if they have "charisma," I still feel as a fan that this is a bad idea. I just hope that they can all compete without issue and that none of them break a hip... or end up as the next Gary Goodridge.

This isn't meant to be preachy, but I just... was thinking about this today. It may seem hypocritical, but I'll be watching in 10 days time.

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