Coach Kavanagh on when it’s a fighter’s time to retire
“When the time comes, I’ll be able to tell a guy and he’ll listen to me – that the time of being a prize fighter is over and now it’s time to be a martial artist, which is forever.”
“Oh, the secret to a long life’s knowing when it’s time to go.”
-Michelle Shocked
SBG Ireland head John Kavanagh recently spoke with MMAJunkie, following his presentation on fighter safety seminar at Dublin’s Royal College of Surgeons.
Boxing is haunted by the specter of punch drunk fighters, who literally got their brains beaten out, and suffer horribly from dementia and other symptoms of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy.
The sole diagnosed case of CTE is Gary Goodridge, who fought in unregulated bouts, and attributes the damage to kickboxing. However, given the number of athletes with CTE in football, hockey, and many other sports, it is inevitable that MMA is not immune.
Fighters fight, for money, for the challenge, for the fans, for a host of reasons. Fighters are not good at not fighting. Coaches can play a central role in keeping the danger at bay. Kavanagh coaches Conor McGregor, Cathal Pendred, Paddy Holohan, and Aisling Daly at one of the world’s best gyms, SBGI Ireland.
I’d like to think that I’m keeping an eye on it, and when the time comes, I’ll be able to tell a guy and he’ll listen to me – that the time of being a prize fighter is over and now it’s time to be a martial artist, which is forever, said Kavanagh to Tom Rooney.
When I think the time is up, I just won’t coach or corner them anymore, he said. Then it’s out of my hands. If they want, they can join another gym and continue to compete.
Obviously, I can’t physically stop a man who has made up his own mind on what he wants to do. I do hope that I have enough of a relationship with my guys that, when the time comes, they’ll heed it.
I don’t see the role of medicine as telling people how to live their lives. I think the role of medicine is to help people do what they want to do safely.
It’s a dangerous sport at the professional level. One third of UFC fights end up with one person being knocked unconscious or technically knocked unconscious. One in five professional boxers dement early in life, and I don’t believe it’ll be any different for MMA.
For more information check out the Safe MMA organization website.