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Morning Report: After two grueling fights in a row, Joe Lauzon wary of the threat of brain damage - MMA Fighting

The threat of the future, and how crippling it could become, is one that seems best left ignored by professional fighters, if only because the reality is terrifying. Tragic stories like that of Gary Goodridge are very real, and reconciling such a fact cannot be easy for anyone who cashes their paycheck with contests to get hit in the skull the least.

That inevitable moment of self-reflection is enough to send some fighters darting down a different path, such as former UFC bantamweight Nick Denis. The 29-year-old biochemist and Ph.D. student abruptly retired last year, citing concerns over the effects of continual concussive blows. Sadly though, stories like Denis' are few and far between. Often the realization comes too late in a fighter's life, when a lifetime of combat has already wreaked havoc on the brain and the tau proteins have long begun taking root.

For an athlete like Joe Lauzon, who prides himself on entertaining performances, the discussion becomes one of particular significance. At 28 years old, Lauzon has been through more battles than most men twice his age. But it's his last two fights, grueling wars of attrition against Jamie Varner and Jim Miller, that have Lauzon considering the consequences.

Lauzon is an intelligent guy, one with a firm grasp of the fragility of the human body. And while he believes it's too early in his career to be worried, Lauzon is well aware of what could happen if he maintains this pace.

[mmawolverine]

lauzon is 100% right but it still sucks that you have to wait till the initial signs of damage set in, theres got to be a better way, annual psych evals and maybe some sort of comparative brain activity scans should be offered by the ufc