Wanderlei Silva has attracted the attention of the California State Athletic Commission after admitting in a new interview that he’s suffering from many of the concussion-like symptoms related to Chronic Traumatic Encaphalopathy (CTE).
“I was in a lecture about concussion and of the 10 symptoms the guy mentioned, I had eight,” Silva told PVT in Brazil. “The symptoms would be, for example, mood swings, getting angry very fast, forgetting some things, having difficulty sleeping.”
Silva was a leading member of the infamous Chuteboxe fight camp in Brazil back in his younger days, who were known to undergo the most brutal sparring sessions in the business to get ready for their fights, and in hindsight ‘The Axe Murderer’ recognises that was a mistake.
“In our time … I believed that the more punches you took, the more you could bear it,” Silva said. “And it’s the other way around: The more punches you take, the less you can handle at the time of the fight.”
Clearly Silva believes that permanent damage has been done to his brain as a result of all his wars over the years, and as such he says he’s going to donate his brain to science when he dies.
“I thought a lot about it and even tried to contact people to make this donation. I have the most interested in donating, since I won’t be using it anyway. This area is very important.”
Remarkably, despite all the issues he seems to be suffering from, Silva also indicated that he still intends to continue competing, but in light of his comments the California State Athletic Commission have already come out to say they will need to investigate the matter further before they’d grant him a license to fight there again.
“We’re going to have to make sure he’s neurologically fit to go,” CSAC Executive Director Andy Foster told MMAjunkie. “If fighters say things like this in the press, we have to follow up. He’s welcome to fight here if he’s medically cleared.”
