Outside Source
LAS VEGAS — From the moment fight week began, Michael Chiesa knew something was wrong with Max Holloway.
It was the Monday before International Fight Week festivities kicked off when Chiesa and a teammate happened to catch a video of the UFC featherweight champion. Instantly, they were perplexed. Something was amiss with Holloway, but they couldn’t quite tell what. They weren’t alone. Later that night, Holloway’s team rushed their fighter to the emergency room. Within 48 hours, Holloway was back in the E.R. once more, and by that time, his UFC 226 fight with Brian Ortega had been called off. The co-main event for the biggest card of the year, scratched because of concussion-like symptoms shown by a 26-year-old.
Chiesa hasn’t stopped thinking about it since.
“I’m worried about him, and I hope he’s OK,” Chiesa told MMA Fighting. “It’s just a scary thing to think about. He’s a guy like myself who has to put himself through the ringer to make weight, and I just can’t imagine what would’ve happened if this guy would’ve continued with his weight cut and really tried to buckle down and be the champion he is. I’m sure that he didn’t willingly let himself go from the fight. I’m sure they really had to make a decision for him, but I’m just glad he’s not competing, man. I just… he’s young. He’s got a bright future.
“So I just hope he’s OK, man. That’s all. I just hope Max is OK.”
Chiesa isn’t alone.
Fights falling through on fight week is a common occurrence these days, especially when the calendar swings back around to International Fight Week — the UFC’s annual celebration of all things mixed martial arts, which is starting to feel more and more cursed with each passing year. But the manner of Holloway’s withdrawal was different than most. It was unusual. Scary. The slow, slurred speech. The manager’s statement that described a scene lifted straight out of a nightmare. All of this for an athlete young enough to still be years away from his fighting prime.
It was clear that Holloway’s absence — and the nature of that absence — was being felt in Las Vegas as UFC 226 media day unfolded. Lightweight prospect Lando Vannata admitted the news shook him up once he heard. He said he knows a friend who took a spinning heel kick to the eye and had no recourse but to sit in a pitch-black room for days on end because exposure to light afterward was unbearable. “Man, concussions are no joke. Brain trauma is no joke. It’s scary,” Vannata said.
“I want to have a good life after I’m done here. I don’t want to be dealing with a whole bunch of issues, so it stays in your mind.”
Bantamweight contender Rob Font echoed those thoughts. He said he’s known people in the gym who have been forced to take several years off from their careers simply due to reoccurring concussion-related issues. It’s a problem that former lightweight champion Anthony Pettis can relate to as well. “I had [a concussion] last year,” Pettis admitted. “It lasted 10 days. Scariest thing ever, because you can’t fix it. There’s no pill you can take. You’ve just gotta rest, close your eyes and be in a dark room. You can’t look at your phone. Focusing your eyes is hard. Focusing is hard.
“It’s a scary thing.”
Pettis’ teammate, lightweight contender Paul Felder, said Holloway’s situation was an eye-opener. He, too, has dealt with concussions and headaches that lasted far longer than they ever should. “It’s scary, man, and it makes you realize this game is no joke,” Felder explained. “What we do is serious, and that you’ve got to really have safety first.
“It makes me realize that when I start feeling like this is too much or I’ve had enough of this sport, I’m out. And I’ve said that to my mom and my family from the beginning, that, ‘I’ll let you guys know, trust me. When I feel like it’s starting to wear on me too first, safety first.’ I’m not hanging around for paychecks longer than I need to. I’m in it to be one of the best in the world while I can, and if that’s not happening, I’m not sticking around to be a journeyman.”
Stories like these are everywhere, and in a macabre way, it’s not surprising. Brain trauma and fight sports go hand-in-hand, as uncomfortable as that reality may be.
But rarely do you see symptoms like Holloway’s appear so forcefully in an athlete so young.
On Thursday, UFC president Dana White speculated that weight-cutting may have contributed to Holloway’s situation. White said the UFC is still investigating to get to the root of the problem, but several other fighters couldn’t help but acknowledge the elephant in the room as well: Holloway is a massive featherweight who cuts an immense amount of weight. Less than three months ago, he was pulled from a UFC 223 title opportunity because of a cut that crossed the line.
So even if weight-cutting wasn’t the primary issue at UFC 226, the act of repeatedly malnourishing his body couldn’t possibly have helped an already dire state of affairs.
“I think about that a lot actually,” Chiesa said. “Fortunately, my weight’s good right now, but the weight cuts get taxing, man. They really do. I’m a big guy. I’m bigger than a lot of welterweights I train with and I’m not proud of that, but it’s like, this is the division I’m in and it’s almost too late to turn back. But it does worry me. We’ve seen and heard of bad things in other promotions. Who’s it going to be here? I don’t want it to be me. But studies have shown that this weight-cutting business is hard on the brain.
“All I know is, I just hope Max is OK. That’s all I can think about, man. I just am glad that they pulled him from the fight. I think the weight cut really… it’s done some severe damage on top of everything that he’s going through with the concussion symptoms.”
“People need to also realize what we’re doing is a severe thing,” added light heavyweight up-and-comer Khalil Rountree. “I don’t want to say that I’m glad. My heart goes out to Max. But I’m glad that they’re bringing light to the situation, because now it brings awareness to the severity of what we do. I love Max and it sucks that this happened, especially at this time. But I think more for me, it was more of a wake-up call.
“I think that the fans can be a little bit more compassionate for what the hell we’re going through in order to entertain them, also while we make a living entertaining them. Not that we have a problem with it, but look at it for what it is. We’re doing our best to show up there for you guys, to give you entertainment, to fight each other. So just cut us some slack.”
The immediate future for Holloway is still murky.
In speaking about a timetable for the featherweight champion’s return, White emphatically made it clear “there’s no way that this guy is going to fight anytime soon.” And once Holloway does return, who knows if it will be at 145 pounds, or even should be. The native Hawaiian has long admitted that a move to lightweight is an eventuality — an admission that has only increased in frequency over recent years as Holloway approaches his 30s and his 5-foot-11 frame matures.
It’s a difficult proposition to consider for a sitting champion, but an important one, because these type of things only get worse, never better.
Take the example of Pettis, a natural lightweight whose short-lived flirtation with 145 pounds ended in a disastrous cut that came opposite Holloway in late 2016. In an effort to deprive his body of the fuel it needs to sustain itself, Pettis admits that he reached a point where his eyesight blanked to white and he felt himself unable to even wake up. Seven months passed before Pettis entered the cage again. He’ll never again fight at featherweight.
So while Holloway’s condition is still uncertain, Pettis hopes the young champion takes similar pause rather than rushing back to please the sport’s many masters.
“If I could give Max advice, take the time you need to figure this out,” Pettis said. “Don’t rush it back. Because I know all these media outlets, all these people are already putting pressure on him. His Instagram account is about to be filled with hate and it sucks to read that shit. And these people don’t understand what it does to the athlete. He’s gonna be pushing to get back and it could potentially be bad for his career. Take your time.”
Additional reporting by Marc Raimondi.
This article first appeared at MMA Fighting – All Posts
