MMA-veteranen Renato Sobral har tävlat i sporten under 16 års tid i bland annat UFC, Bellator och Strikeforce, där han var mästare i lätt tungvikt.
Han har under sin karriär mött stora namn som Fedor Emelianenko, Mauricio Rua, Dan Henderson, Gegard Mousasi, Robbie Lawler, Chuck Liddell, Chael Sonnen, och Kevin Randleman.
Men ’Babalu’ har till synes fått betala ett högt pris för detta.
Idag befarar Sobral att han upplever de tidiga symptomen för CTE (kronisk traumatisk encefalopati), även kallat ’boxardemens’.
I en lång intervju med ’PVT’ detaljerar den 43-årige brasilianske fightern sina svårigheter i vardagen, där han bland annat kämpar med sin balans.
What happened to me was something that came in homeopathic doses. Today a fighter learns how to fight, he learns how to make money, but he doesn’t learn too much about how to manage his life. I didn’t learn how to manage my life. I made several mistakes about money, about what I could have done with my career. I paid a price for being where I am.
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. When I’m fighting, when I’m in a jiu-jitsu tournament or in training, it feels that my balance is normal again, but it’s complicated on a daily basis. But 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?
If someone asked me if I would let my son fight vale tudo, I would say no, I wouldn’t. My daughter? No. I would hope she wouldn’t. I’d rather see her study. My daughter already is on the water polo ‘A’ team of her high school, she competes, but being a professional athlete? Any sport demands a lot from your body and you will have to pay the price in the future.
Vet inte om han hinner se sina barnbarn
Sobral har den senaste tiden tränat Capoeira för att förbättra sin balans.
Men hälsan var inte alltid en hög prioritet, speciellt under tiden då han deltog i ’vale tudo’ och behövde betala sina räkningar.
You start doing things you are not prepared to do, but you have to go. You have to fight in pain, fight while injured. You get knocked out in the gym, and you’re still fighting the week after. You have to fight. You can’t say, ‘I won’t fight’. It’s one blow after the other. And I’m [paying the price] now, right? I don’t know if I’ll be able to see my grandkids, enjoy my grandkids in a normal way, because I’m starting to slowly feel the effects.
I already have [chronic] traumatic encephalopathy, actually. People barely talk about it. 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.
Sobral gick senast match i Bellator mot Jacob Noe 2013 på Bellator 96, där han förlorade via TKO i tredje ronden, vilket blev hans andra raka förlust via knockout.
Han gick efter denna matchen i pension och förklarade att hans kropp inte längre klarade av påfrestningarna som professionell MMA-fighter.
Under 2015 gick han ur pensionen för att möta Volkan Oezdemir under SHC 11 i Schweiz.
Sobral har idag ett record på 37-11, varav 7 av förlusterna varit via KO/TKO.
