Former UFC And Pride Star Gary Goodridge Diagnosed With Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

aggle flaggle klabble. wumpy flumpy, derp.’

But Goodridge should talk to Liddell to see the effects of head shots in MMA.

Not trying to sweep head trauma and its consequences under the rug.

“I would like to share with people, but I think most of my damage came from XARM. MMA really wasn’t an issue because there’s hardly any shots to the head,” said Goodridge. “90-percent of my injuries came from XARM, where there’s nothing but head trauma, head injuries over and over again.”

Was his excellent work in covering brain trauma in football and combat sports. Some of the stuff he brought up was shocking; I seem to remember reading that modern football helmets only offer marginally more protection than the old-fashioned leather helmets.

There’s still so much we don’t know and indeed research seems to suggest that the many, many minor concussions that football players and fighters suffer can cause as much or more brain trauma than a handful of clean knockouts. Here’s hoping Goodridge’s case will open a few more eyes.

The thing with Gary’s K-1 career is that he fought the absolute best in the world, men who pretty much always had much better technique than him. What Gary had going for him was an incredible chin, big heart, and huge power in his hands. Usually you’d see him always lumbering forward with his hands down, taking big shots, while swinging wild hooks and haymakers. He was never a fine technician, and he almost always came up short against the JLB’s and Peter Aert’s of the world. He’d usually smash lesser opponents though.

Either way he has taken huge amounts of damage during his career, partly because he fought men better than him, and also because of his reckless style of fighting. Add then the fact that he probably should have retired at least five years before he did, and frankly shouldn’t have been licensed and cleared to fight during that time. Quite a sad story.

Doo Ho Choi is missing, so he’s out of DEEP 57 FW title fight
and now Hideki Kadowaki is in

Thanks Brent.

I thought CTE could only be positively identified with an autopsy though?

All of this brain trauma stuff is why i’m really not enjoying watching football anymore. Either people are ignorant, or they think that since people are “free to choose” what they do to their bodies it’s ok to cheer that shit on.

I’m holding onto MMA for as long as I can, but I have a feeling we’re all going to be feeling kinda guilty in the years to come…

GIFSoup

i hope he has a good retirement

Fun fact: Gary Goodridge was one of the best arm wrestlers in the world before he transitioned to MMA. http://www.armwrestlinghistorychannel.com/2011/12/gary-goodridge.html

I bet most of you already knew that, but there you go. I’d also recommend the documentary “Pulling John” about arm wrestling, very interesting stuff.

I met Gary a few years ago at the first MMA Expo in Toronto. He is one scary mother. He had a fight that night on some Indian reserve, and he looked like he wanted to kill everyone at that expo.

this reminds me of the story Eddie Bravo told a while back where Goodridge was at a Pride show and was so fucked up he thought he was at a rave. he thought he had picked up some chick at the club and it was actually his sister, who had traveled with him. you have to wonder how you get a guy to stop fighting or work on getting better evaluations/medical treatment.

like Joe Rogan said: brain damage is for keeps.

http://www.beyondthepitch.net/podcasts/edition/index.cfm/beyond-the-pitch/2011/03/09/chris-nowinski/

Interesting to relate it to a number of sports and their safeguards

I mean, he got knocked out repeatedly by guys he shouldn’t have been fighting in the first place.

…Has consistently been shown to cut brain damage in half—to this day it’s being tested on soldiers with brain trauma showing good results. It’s a wonder combat athletes aren’t consuming it with their cornflakes. I know I was when I was when I was actively competing.

…doing light sparring for years most likely isn’t going to turn you into a drooling punch-drunk idiot but it may very well have an impact in more subtle ways later on, such as: Depression, anxiety, ADHD, maybe Alzheimers in later life. It’s not an either/or scenario, it’s more of a continuum: Gary Goodrich obviously doesn’t represent the majority of people in terms of how much damage he has sustained. Do your own research and make an informed decision about how much you’re willing to risk vs. how much your willing to participate. I personally, at age 37, am not willing to take the damage from sparring and risk quality of life later on for a hobby. I stick to bag work and pads for my stand-up and grappling for my actual sparring and competing. It’s risk vs. reward.