Babalu Sobral Admits To CTE Symptoms

Six years after he last stepped into a cage, Renato Sobral has resurfaced to announce he has symptoms of  CTE.

Sobral, who has fought for the UFC, Strikeforce and Bellator, fought nearly 50 times as a professional beginning in 1997, with seven of his professional losses coming by way of knockout. “I already have [chronic] traumatic encephalopathy, actually. People barely talk about it,” Sobral told MMA Fighting. “You can do a research, [professional fighters] have peaks of depression, we have seizures, you don’t listen that well. I don’t have speaking issues yet, but I lost the eye sight of my left eye, I have osteoarthritis on my entire body. My knee. I have 13 surgeries through my entire body. So, there’s a price (to pay). It’s not in there for free. I don’t even think it’s about glory, because it’s not for enough time.”

”Today I can’t walk a straight line, I lost sight of my left eye, which is a big price (to pay). I have no balance today, my balance is almost zero,” Sobral said.

“The guys that start fighting have to know that the price to pay will come one day. For everyone. People only talk about the good things today, what they have accomplished, what happened, but what about what you’ve lost? What happened to you?”

While there seems to be more precaution than ever in a sport predicated on punching, kicking, and slamming an opponent on their head, the issue still stands heading into the third generation for a sport that has seen fighters like Sobral, Gary Goodridge, T.J. Grant, Krzysztok Soszynski, and possibly Wanderlei Silva retire or make it known that they are suffering from CTE, which rose to prominence due to a rash of suicides and other traumatic incidents involving former players in the National Football League.

Report: MMA Fighting