Fitch: There’s a possibility I won’t be able to fight again

WSoF welterweight champion Jon Fitch is 38, and got some unsettling news a week before his title defense vs. Jake Shields on New Years Eve. Irregularities were found during an MRI of his brain. A second scan was done, and doctors cleared him to fight. But, while he has not experienced any physical or emotional symptoms, it may not be over.

We’re still trying to arrange all the appointments that I need to to get things looked at, said Fitch, as transcribed by Danny Segura for MMA Fighting. They found a couple of very tiny, they call it 2T- flare foci, but it could be nothing, it could be something from childhood, something they never picked up because the equipments are so much better today at picking things up that they noticed it this time. So I had to do a second MRI just to be sure that it’s safe to fight, and you know, of

“So I had to do a second MRI just to be sure that it’s safe to fight, and you know, of course I’m alright because they wouldn’t let me fight if I wasn’t, but I just want to make sure that I’m not going to start losing time and slurring my speech or whatever if I continue moving forward with my training camps. Because I can fight for the fights, but eight to 12 week training camps really puts damage on your body and your head.

Complicating matters, MRIs are expensive, so he doesn’t yet have another appointment booked.

I’m not a very rich man,” said Fitch. “I can’t just go out of pocket and go to anybody. With that brain stuff, I’m looking for, there are people that are doing studies for free because they’re trying to collect data, so I’m trying to go see those people.

There is a chance that he will not fight again.

It’s a possibility, said Fitch. It all depends on what comes back when I talk to the doctors.

The other issue is that I’ve had spine and neck issues for a number of years and that’s been really bothering me too, so if I can’t remedy that that’s an issue that may push me towards retirement. It’s just too hard to go eight to 12 weeks when I keep having bulging disks flaring up, and my fingers and hands go numb, and I start losing considerable strength from atrophy is just something I can’t continue with. And if I do continue with it, it’s going to get worse and I’m going to have to get surgery or something, and then I’ll be restricted with what kind of movement I can do, and I want to be able to teach jiu-jitsu and wrestling and roll around with my kids in the future, so I kind of need that somehow figured out too.

If Fitch is forced to retire, he wants to see some changes before he is comfortable bringing others along on the sport. He is an ardent supporter of the Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Association, the first of now several groups seeking to organize fighters.

A big part of that is how much we can impact and change the sport through the MMAFA and the Muhammad Ali extension act because I don’t like how the sport operates right now, said Fitch. And it wouldn’t be fun for me, and I wouldn’t want to put my athletes, who I care about, into that kind of a meat grinder to be basically pimped out, while destroying their body to make somebody else rich. I wouldn’t be comfortable with that. So if I could help get the ground work started and build a framework so we have a legitimate sport with MMA, then I think I would be excited about the sport again, and I think I would want to take part in coaching and help other fighters out.