Concerns Regarding Sub-Concussive Trauma Primary Cause

By FCF Staff

Despite having gone 7-3 in his last 10 fights, and reached the upper echelon of the sport while doing so, UFC bantamweight Nick Denis is retiring from MMA at the young age of 29. The Ottawa native and Tristar fighter made the announcement via his personal blog.

According to Denis, who is a former PHD student in biochemistry, he has made the decision due to  concerns that he’s incurring sub-concussive trauma as a pro fighter.

After my first loss, a devastating knockout where Marlon Sandro dribbled my head on the canvas like a basketball, I did lots of research on concussions. As a graduate student at the university of Ottawa, I had access to all peer reviewed scientific journals. No surprise to find that concussions = bad. However, I found something that had never occurred to me. Sub-concussive trauma. Basically, a blow to the head that doesn’t lead to a concussion. When it happens, you feel fine, and continue on. Maybe you feel like you just had a little brain scramble, nothing big. Those who spar, know what I am talking about. However these add up. They accumulate, from training session to training session, year after year.

Although Denis has not been knocked out since his bout with Sandro, and his only losses since have been due to submission, concerns regarding repeated blows to his head have led him to his decision.

In the last couple years, and especially in the last few months leading up to my May 5th fight, while sparring I would notice that when I got hit, it would affect me more and more. When I first started sparring I would run through punches unaffected. Not only that, but now training at Tristar, I am literally training with the worlds best. We are all training at the highest level, all for the same reasons. Could I  fight in the UFC, against the best fighters in our solar system, literally trained killers, without sparring in training? Not really, so what was I to do? I have made the decision to retire.

Denis went on to thank the various promoters he’s worked for as well as the coaches and training partners that helped him work his way into the UFC.

The bantamweight walks away from the sport having put together a 11-3 record. Denis competed last at UFC on FOX 3 in May, and was tapped out by Roland Delorme, after knocking out Joseph Sandoval with a standing elbow at a UFC on FX event in January.