Imes: MD said to retire or I would be a vegetable or dead

Brad Imes started MMA in 2004, when a job in a shrimp boat didn’t work out. he was 6′ 7″ and 265;

He won three in the WEC and then was chosen for the second season of TUF, where he lost via Split Decision in the finals vs. Rashad Evans. He lost his next fight in the UFC, was released, and won three in a row in regional shows. Then it was back to the UFC, but he lost again, and was released.

He went 6-1, and landed in the IFL, but got knocked out in the first by Roy Nelson. He won his next fight, but something changed. The guy who had only been knocked out once, lost his final two fights in a combined 66 seconds.

His last fight was on 12 September 2009. Imes retired with a 14-7 record.

It started in January 2008, he said to Trent Reinsmith for MMAjunkie. I lost to Anthony Ruiz in a fight that he didn’t do anything to me, but I was unmotivated to even be there. I just figured I could go out there and do what I do and just walk through him and be done.

The head trauma from MMA and football left him with memory issues, and he went to see an MD.

They told me that I had to stop fighting,” he said. “That if I continued it was going to kill me or that I was going to be a vegetable.”

He worked as a firefighter, but that did not last.

This story in combat sports can have a terribly grim ending. Imes mental capacity improved. He now works as a project manager, something he could not have done in 2008/2009.

I’ve done a lot of research and talked to doctors,” he said. “And I’ve started taking natural supplements and things that reduce swelling on the brain and that improve concentration, and it really has made an enormous difference.”

I have to concentrate on organization and keep track of different things on different jobs, and when I first got out of fighting, there was no way that I could have done this job. It would have been like herding cats.

He looks back without regrets.

It was a great time, he said. I had my highs and my lows, but I wouldn’t change it.

For all the fun and all the wild and crazy things that I did, being a husband and a father? Those are my real accomplishments.”