My heart goes out to Spencer, but I assure you he neither wants or needs anyone’s pity.
I grappled with him a bit last year and he is still an excellent instructor and a grappling machine, arguably better than ever. On one of the recent shows a pro got tapped with a one-armed choke and I made the mistake of saying something like, “there’s not a man alive that can choke me out with one arm.” It took him like 15 seconds to prove me wrong, half of that narration.
He’s the baddest motherfucker I’ve ever known, a fighter to the marrow of his bones, and he deserves better than this. With CTE it is a one-way street, but to be bullshitted and fucked around by company agenda doctors obfuscating his injuries is shameless.
I love Spencer and Emily and his family, and I hope they get the peace they deserve.
All our MMA heroes are going to be eating mashed potatoes every meal eventually
Yeah except they're not. The vast majority of boxers and MMA fighters end up just fine.
I fought MMA and boxed. It wasn't my career but I knew the risks. Anyone that doesn't understand the risk is a complete fucking idiot.
Most will make it out ok, a minority of people won't. It is what it is.
If you can't handle the risk, don't fight. Pretty fucking simple.
A bit harsh big fella, The king Fisher put on some great performances and definitely left it all in there. I wish him well.
My posts weren't directed at him directly. Of course it is a terrible thing anytime someone gets hurt doing a sport or activity. Especially if it is a long term injury.
I certainly feel bad for him, and anyone else anytime they get hurt or killed doing an activity. More extreme sports/activities incur more risk.
I'm just saying, we all know the risks. Most people make it out ok, a minority don't.
If you aren't ok with those odds, don't partake in the activity.
My posts are more directed at people that act like they are shocked this could happen and it's the sport/activity that is to blame.
Glory Kickboxing - Fight sports are guaranteed CTE - whether to a minor degree or a major one is variable per person and career, but everyone who fights pro will get some degree of it.
I can’t find the study off-hand, but a UK study of professional boxers for signs of neurological damage found that the incidence was 100% - fully 100% of them showed some degree of abnormality in scans and testing.
There’s all kinds of arguments around how this truth and reality should be handled.
For me, the imbalance between the insane profits of the promoter and the share to the fighter is something to be addressed. Healthcare, insurance, post-career planning
All this “independent contractor” horseshit is just that - horseshit. Fuck you, promotion - you know what you’re doing and what benefits you’re deriving and how sly you’re being with this legal technicality. It’s not illegal but it is immoral.
Second, gyms like Miletich FS. The training style they had was not atypical for the day and era - Lion’s Den, Chute Boxe, Golden Glory were all slaughterhouses as well - but there is something just so particularly meatheaded about MFS.
The more stories that come out of that gym - not only the training and macho ‘get back in there’ shit but the hazing - it just sounds, ultimately, like a mismanaged environment.
That meathead training style is now all but gone in the sport it seems, but regular head impact is still not a think the soft jelly of your brain is designed to endure on a near-daily basis for X years, no matter how soft you go.
Where in the natural world would a wild human suffer such repeated head impacts day after day for 1-2 decades? Nowhere. The skull and brain simply are not designed for it.
America being America, somehow a way will be found to keep all the CTE sports going while they make money. But for the first time, I can see a day when the science becomes so indisputable that the sports are either forced to fundamentally change, or people switch to different sports.
What I get out of this post is capitalism is bad, adult men shouldn’t be responsible for their lives and health, and Americans are greedy pigs. Just a pathetic outlook.
What I get out of your post is: your reading comprehension isn’t great, you’re incredibly sensitive to anything that features the word ‘America’, you’re incredibly sensitive about capitalism and you believe adult men to be infallible decision makers.
From this I deduce that you are a retarded closet homosexual from Russia who has a fetish for wealthy American men.
He doesnt sound all that bad tbh. Compare his speech vs a guy like gary goodridge or other prominent boxers from yesteryear.
It doesn't matter if he "doesn't sound at all that bad" to you. The guy has lesions on the brain and is diagnosed with dementia. And hearing him talk about his story, he's clearly suffering.
Lots of people take risks to take part in activities/sports they enjoy.
Rock climbing, sky diving, base jumping, horseback riding, motorcycle riding, car racing etc.
The list goes on and on.
Anyone with a half functioning brain knows some activities have higher risks than others. Most people are ok with the risks to do the things they want to do.
All our MMA heroes are going to be eating mashed potatoes every meal eventually
Yeah except they're not. The vast majority of boxers and MMA fighters end up just fine.
I fought MMA and boxed. It wasn't my career but I knew the risks. Anyone that doesn't understand the risk is a complete fucking idiot.
Most will make it out ok, a minority of people won't. It is what it is.
If you can't handle the risk, don't fight. Pretty fucking simple.
A bit harsh big fella, The king Fisher put on some great performances and definitely left it all in there. I wish him well.
My posts weren't directed at him directly. Of course it is a terrible thing anytime someone gets hurt doing a sport or activity. Especially if it is a long term injury.
I certainly feel bad for him, and anyone else anytime they get hurt or killed doing an activity. More extreme sports/activities incur more risk.
I'm just saying, we all know the risks. Most people make it out ok, a minority don't.
If you aren't ok with those odds, don't partake in the activity.
My posts are more directed at people that act like they are shocked this could happen and it's the sport/activity that is to blame.
Awesome guy. Trained with him back in the day in NC before he took off to Iowa to train with Miletich. Definitely one of the toughest dudes I ever trained with. Forward motion was all he knew back then. Hit the guy and he would just keep coming forward til he bulldogged you into a corner and layed you out. We didn't use headgear back then either. Not sure if many people know he was doing old school no gloves,no rules fights in little rinky dink gymnasiums back then too. So he'd been taking damage long before he got in the UFC. He just loved fighting and never wanted to do anything else and I was stoked when he finally got into the UFC as that was his dream from the start.
It saddens me a bit to hear about this but he’s a f’ckin’ warrior and I’m sure he’ll make it through this too.
He hit me with an uppercut one time, and I literally thought he knocked my head off my body. The ceiling lights seemed to get a lot closer when my head snapped back.
"Less than once a year in the combat sports space, a long-form article is published that has to to be read. If you love mixed martial arts, you have to read it, and if you don’t read it, you don’t love mixed martial arts."
Was this a guest piece written by someone's retarded nephew?
Miletich... All the stories that come out from there depict a jock mentality. Wreckless approach to training.
No surprise to hear that prick was amongst those who marched in the riot.
Wtf is with Spencer's med cocktail. Before seeking to change anything further, I'd start there (and any doctor worth his / her salt would advise the same). Start with axeing the zopiclone. It is not a drug which should be taken continuously (one night, then abstain; still no sleep, repeat) nor should it be taken for longer than a two week period. In Europe it's gradually being phased out due to psychological side-effects.
It upsets me to read of people blindly taking cocktails of meds when following doctor's advise. Always question.
Awesome guy. Trained with him back in the day in NC before he took off to Iowa to train with Miletich. Definitely one of the toughest dudes I ever trained with. Forward motion was all he knew back then. Hit the guy and he would just keep coming forward til he bulldogged you into a corner and layed you out. We didn't use headgear back then either. Not sure if many people know he was doing old school no gloves,no rules fights in little rinky dink gymnasiums back then too. So he'd been taking damage long before he got in the UFC. He just loved fighting and never wanted to do anything else and I was stoked when he finally got into the UFC as that was his dream from the start.
It saddens me a bit to hear about this but he’s a f’ckin’ warrior and I’m sure he’ll make it through this too.
Best to him and his family.
I trained a lot w Spencer in the mountains pre-UFC, and maybe you had a different experience than I did. Can you PM me who you are if you don’t want to here? Everybody there knows me as Neckbone.
Never once did we fight wide-open bare knuckle. With sparring we didn’t always wear headgear, but we always had gloves (boxing or VTD) and mouthguards. We did spar to the finish occasionally, but always with the intent of securing the tap, not by beatdown or KO. Matter of fact I never saw anyone get KO’d ever in the 100’s of sparring sessions we had.
Never once did I see Spencer laying people out in a training situation. Largely he was so much better than the rest of us that he was able to dial it back safely.
We did grapple wide-open, full speed and strength JJ and wrestling.
The idea that we ever fought “no rules” is totally false. Of course there was the common gentleman’s rules of no groin shots, biting, hair pulling, clothing grips, headbutts, fish hooking and shit like that. We also never did elbows and knees because there was simply no safe way to do it. If someone got rocked or dropped, never was this an opportunity for a cheap shot. You’d check on the person and let them recover.
The bulk of the training we did focused on BJJ, which was his true love. He was gifted hands and that was what he was known for, but the basic approach was to use hands to engage, secure the takedown and the tap. Pre MFS I don’t think he took any more damage than what occurs in your average wrestling room.
^ i think the guys mixing up training stories with fischer old school nhb pro fights that he had in those days too. ie. he fought in bare knuckle and layed dudes out, dont think hes saying they did that in training too. cheers.
Awesome guy. Trained with him back in the day in NC before he took off to Iowa to train with Miletich. Definitely one of the toughest dudes I ever trained with. Forward motion was all he knew back then. Hit the guy and he would just keep coming forward til he bulldogged you into a corner and layed you out. We didn't use headgear back then either. Not sure if many people know he was doing old school no gloves,no rules fights in little rinky dink gymnasiums back then too. So he'd been taking damage long before he got in the UFC. He just loved fighting and never wanted to do anything else and I was stoked when he finally got into the UFC as that was his dream from the start.
It saddens me a bit to hear about this but he’s a f’ckin’ warrior and I’m sure he’ll make it through this too.
Best to him and his family.
I trained a lot w Spencer in the mountains pre-UFC, and maybe you had a different experience than I did. Can you PM me who you are if you don’t want to here? Everybody there knows me as Neckbone.
Never once did we fight wide-open bare knuckle. With sparring we didn’t always wear headgear, but we always had gloves (boxing or VTD) and mouthguards. We did spar to the finish occasionally, but always with the intent of securing the tap, not by beatdown or KO. Matter of fact I never saw anyone get KO’d ever in the 100’s of sparring sessions we had.
Never once did I see Spencer laying people out in a training situation. Largely he was so much better than the rest of us that he was able to dial it back safely.
We did grapple wide-open, full speed and strength JJ and wrestling.
The idea that we ever fought “no rules” is totally false. Of course there was the common gentleman’s rules of no groin shots, biting, hair pulling, clothing grips, headbutts, fish hooking and shit like that. We also never did elbows and knees because there was simply no safe way to do it. If someone got rocked or dropped, never was this an opportunity for a cheap shot. You’d check on the person and let them recover.
The bulk of the training we did focused on BJJ, which was his true love. He was gifted hands and that was what he was known for, but the basic approach was to use hands to engage, secure the takedown and the tap. Pre MFS I don’t think he took any more damage than what occurs in your average wrestling room.
Spencer’s first “nhb” fight shot by a guy "I’ll call “reggie” since I’m not sure he would want his real name posted. Initially they agreed to no gloves but on the day of the fight,they opted to use bag gloves,(no hand wraps). Elbows,groin shots and headbutts were allowed. This is only partially the fight,and some of the tape from the original video was cut for, I assume, production purposes. They went for 2 rounds. Spence won by choke in the footage you see here. The second round he won by armbar. The guy wouldn’t tap,and Spence told him he would break it if he didn’t tap and the guy said “go ahead and break it” but the instructor (at who’s basement the fight took place in) talked him into tapping. For reference, I’m the guy in the jogging pants under the speedbag at 3:23. I was probably about 23yo. at the time.
Awesome guy. Trained with him back in the day in NC before he took off to Iowa to train with Miletich. Definitely one of the toughest dudes I ever trained with. Forward motion was all he knew back then. Hit the guy and he would just keep coming forward til he bulldogged you into a corner and layed you out. We didn't use headgear back then either. Not sure if many people know he was doing old school no gloves,no rules fights in little rinky dink gymnasiums back then too. So he'd been taking damage long before he got in the UFC. He just loved fighting and never wanted to do anything else and I was stoked when he finally got into the UFC as that was his dream from the start.
It saddens me a bit to hear about this but he’s a f’ckin’ warrior and I’m sure he’ll make it through this too.
Best to him and his family.
I trained a lot w Spencer in the mountains pre-UFC, and maybe you had a different experience than I did. Can you PM me who you are if you don’t want to here? Everybody there knows me as Neckbone.
Never once did we fight wide-open bare knuckle. With sparring we didn’t always wear headgear, but we always had gloves (boxing or VTD) and mouthguards. We did spar to the finish occasionally, but always with the intent of securing the tap, not by beatdown or KO. Matter of fact I never saw anyone get KO’d ever in the 100’s of sparring sessions we had.
Never once did I see Spencer laying people out in a training situation. Largely he was so much better than the rest of us that he was able to dial it back safely.
We did grapple wide-open, full speed and strength JJ and wrestling.
The idea that we ever fought “no rules” is totally false. Of course there was the common gentleman’s rules of no groin shots, biting, hair pulling, clothing grips, headbutts, fish hooking and shit like that. We also never did elbows and knees because there was simply no safe way to do it. If someone got rocked or dropped, never was this an opportunity for a cheap shot. You’d check on the person and let them recover.
The bulk of the training we did focused on BJJ, which was his true love. He was gifted hands and that was what he was known for, but the basic approach was to use hands to engage, secure the takedown and the tap. Pre MFS I don’t think he took any more damage than what occurs in your average wrestling room.
Spencer’s first “nhb” fight shot by a guy "I’ll call “reggie” since I’m not sure he would want his real name posted. Initially they agreed to no gloves but on the day of the fight,they opted to use bag gloves,(no hand wraps). Elbows,groin shots and headbutts were allowed. This is only partially the fight,and some of the tape from the original video was cut for, I assume, production purposes. They went for 2 rounds. Spence won by choke in the footage you see here. The second round he won by armbar. The guy wouldn’t tap,and Spence told him he would break it if he didn’t tap and the guy said “go ahead and break it” but the instructor (at who’s basement the fight took place in) talked him into tapping. For reference, I’m the guy in the jogging pants under the speedbag at 3:23. I was probably about 23yo. at the time.
I think Spencer was a teenager when this happened. We all did crazy stupid things as teens. I started training with him when were both 22 or so.
I don’t doubt that there are isolated incidents but this wasn’t my experience and I rolled w him for years. We truly did try and do dangerous shit like this in the safest way. Even then as a kid you could see that he was striking primarily w the tap in mind, and securing the TD as quickly as possible.
He once put on an amateur event in Silva that he funded and organized, which basically pit all of his fighters against every local gamer they could find. Every single fight ended in submission, and every student of Spencer’s won. Other than black eyes and bloody noses there were no injuries. This was the first night I met him.
There were a few pre-ufc fights that were wars (vs Josh Neer in an excellent fight, and vs an enormous indian on the rez in an amateur bout). I don’t think he accumulated much damage at all pre-MFS and pre-UFC.
Yeah,it sounds like you met and trained with him at a later time. My memory's a bit fuzzy but I think it was around 1995'-96 or 97' we trained together. When we trained together it was under the coach in the video above. That particular fight in the video above was after he took the "Gracie Challenge"they had back in the day. He called up the gracie academy and set up the challenge match after only training 6 months or so. Me and the other guy's at the gym thought it was a bit nuts,but also knew he was tough enough to handle it. That was really the first "hint" that he was more serious and passionate about fighting than just being a hobby. At the time we trained together, he didn't have his own students and wasn't organizing/funding events. So obviously you caught him at a later time. Maybe a couple of years or so after leaving the gym we both trained at.
“I don’t want to die alone and not know anybody when I see them. I don’t want to go out of this world not knowing people I love, or not knowing new people.”