Medical Non-Disclosure

More Dangerous Than Fighting

Former UFC lightweight and current World Series of Fighting competitor Jacob Volkmann reportedly suffered a seizure the day before his WSOF match against Lyle Beerbohm. Volkmann blamed the seizure on a difficult weight cut. He went on to fight the next night and pulled off a victory over Beerbohm via decision.

When I was 11 years old I suffered my first grand mal seizure. I have had 5 more grand mal seizures since then. Thankfully I am now on medication that prevents the infarctions from happening and helps me live a more full life. Usually it’s because of a lack of sleep or forgetting to take my medication. Are some people genetically pre-disposed to having seizures or are they a product of a stressful of environment? Was the seizure caused by an infection somewhere in his body? The truth is nobody really knows why seizures occur in the first place. By Volkmann’s account of the story he lost consciousness, also known as the “Tonic Phase”, but he started convulsing thus going into the “Clonic Phase.” This is an extremely serious medical emergency.

I have several questions for Mr. Volkmann. Why would you put your physical well being in jeopardy after suffering a seizure? Were there people around you that witnessed the seizure, and if so, why didn’t they say anything to the doctors and medical staff that are at all sporting events? Fighting in hand to hand combat is an inherently dangerous endeavor as it is, so why make it any more dangerous? What kind of diet do you have that you must cut enough weight to cause that much physical stress on your body as to cause a seizure? Seizures cause physical damage to the brain. Using an MRI machine a neurologist can see the physical effects in the form of erratic brain waves and brain lesions that have life long affects.

 

The irresponsibility is confounding to me. Jacob Volkmann can blame the weight cut as the culprit that caused his brain to seize up and have him writhing on the ground, but the fact is nobody knows for sure. Not only did Mr. Volkmann put himself in jeopardy of serious long term health problems or possible death, he also jeopardized the reputation of WSOF, the NBC Sports channel, he prevented the medical staff from doing what they are paid to do in making sure all fighters are physically fit enough to compete.

A hypothetical scenario: Volkmann fights, gets hit once, falls to the ground and seizes up in the cage in front of fans watching in the stands and on T.V., goes into a coma and suffers serious brain damage or death. How is that good for your career? How is that good for our sport?

 

Jacob Volkmann’s irresponsible actions and his teammates lack of common sense are to blame and they should be ashamed of themselves. I don’t know if there will be any ramifications that come about because of his non-disclosure, but one thing is for certain; Volkmann’s actions and his team’s apathy are as idiotic as they are dangerous.

 

I respect all fighters for what they do for us fans. MMA competitors are some of the nicest, fan accessible athletes in the world and for that we are lucky. I respect Jacob Volkmann’s skills in the cage, but this is inexcusable behavior from someone who knows better and we should not simply look the other way.

 

There are a lot of questions that have yet to be answered. I sincerely hope that NSAC and the brass at World Series of Fighting will be monitoring closely the health of Jacob Volkmann and investigating the actions, or lack thereof, that lead to Volkmann still competing after such a serious health scare. There are a set of checks and balances in place to help prevent this sort of thing from happening, however, if the fighters and/or their camps or managers do not disclose this information to the proper channels then those safety measures become null and void.

Thank you and BE SAFE

Randy Casjens

On Twitter- @SavageRandy