Canadian mixed martial artist Gary Goodridge has been diagnosed with early onset chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), or pugilistic dementia.
The fomer UFC, Pride and K-1 kickboxing star has been promoting the book “Gatekeeper: The Fighting Life of Gary Goodridge” in 2012 and he recently admitted to having significant memory problems and was on a series of medications.
After visiting with a Canadian neuro-physician he was diagnosed with the condition, according to MMAweekly.com.
CTE is caused by repeated head trauma and is commonly seen in boxers, football players, hockey players and other athletes who have suffered repeated blows to the head.
Goodridge, who competed in the early days of the UFC and the Japanese-based Pride organization, said he is slowly coming to terms with the diagnosis.
“You get the news you just have to deal with it, live with it,” Goodridge said in a recent interview with MMAWeekly.com. “There’s no treatment that goes along with it. There’s pills to make it slow down the process, but it’s inevitable.”
Goodridge, who wants people to become aware of the condition, believes his CTE is due primarily to his time kickboxing rather than his time in MMA.
“I would like to share with people, but I think most of my damage came from K-1 (kickboxing). MMA really wasn’t an issue because there’s hardly any shots to the head,” Goodridge said. “Ninety per cent of my injuries came from K-1, where there’s nothing but head trauma, head injuries over and over again.”
Despite his current condition the 46-year-old Barrie, Ont., native said he had no remorse regarding his choice of profession.
“I have no regrets,” Goodridge said. “I love the way I live my life, I mean I would like to make little changes, but no, I have no regrets. I loved the way my life was, I lived a good life, and I’m happy with what I did.”
He competed in UFC 8, 9 and 10 under previous ownership, when eight-man tournaments were fully contested on one night. He lost by submission to Don Frye in the final of UFC 8 in February 1996 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and he was a semi-finalist at UFC 10 in July 1996 in Birmingham, Ala., tapping out due to fatigue against eventual winner Mark Coleman in the first event to feature current Octagon announcer Bruce Buffer.
Goodridge retired for good from combat sports following a TKO loss to Lyubomir Simeonov at an event in Bulgaria in December 2010. It was his seventh straight MMA loss. He also went 0-12-1 in his final 13 kickboxing fights from April 2006 to November 2010.
He finished with an MMA record of 23-22-1 and a professional kickboxing record of 12-24-2.
