Rumble: Some fighters at UFC Nashville won’t remember their own name

“The secret to a long life, is knowing when it’s time to go.”
-Michelle Shocked

Former UFC light heavyweight title contender Anthony Johnson shocked the sport when he retired earlier this month after losing via tapout to Daniel Cormier. Johnson was 32 and after 28 fights had never been knocked out. Rumble watched UFC Nashville on Saturday and then voiced on his social network what a lot fans were thinking.

“Watched some of the fights last night,” he wrote. “And I’ll tell you this… Know when to hang em up! If you’ve already been knocked out in about your last 5-6 fights isn’t that your body saying ‘I’ve had enough’? I get that it’s a macho, I-have-bigger-balls-than-you sport, but man some of these dudes are going to forget their name by the time they’re 45. Good luck with that…”

UFC Fight Night 108 was a solid card, but there were two terribly jarring moments. On the first fight of the main card, Mike Perry, 25, won a $50,000 performance bonus for knocking out Jake Ellenberger, 32, with a devastating elbow. Four fights later, Al Iaquinta, 29, knocked out Diego Sanchez, 35, in 98 seconds. Iaquinta too might have earned a performance bonus, but was ineligible.

Ellenberger is 2-7 his last nine, with both of the last two losses coming via early KO. Sanchez is 4-6 his last ten, with his last two losses coming inside of two minutes. Ellenberger started fighting in 2005 and wasn’t knocked out until his 33rd fight in 2012. In the eleven fights since, he has been knocked out four more times. Sanchez wasn’t knocked out until his 35th fight, won one, and then got knocked out again. Sanchez and Ellenberger’s ability to take a shot will only get worse, and the sport is only getting better.

Too little is known about head trauma to be able to generally definitively say medically when it is time to stop fighting professionally, but it is a conversation that has to be had.