Fatigue, irritability, bad headaches... Micky Ward reveals what it's like to live with post concussion syndrome

Micky Ward and Ray Mercer discuss boxing and brain injury

By: Anthony Cammalleri

As the public gains awareness of the severe mental and neurological repercussions high-impact athletes face after blows to the head, some people are beginning to see high impact sports like boxing and MMA under a new and more gruesome light.

Combat sports may not be going anywhere anytime soon, but as waves of fighters speak out about the risk of brain trauma, dialogues open about the sport’s future and potential changes to be made in order to minimize the prevalence of severe brain damage among fighters.

Former IBF light welterweight champion Micky Ward was diagnosed in 2005 with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a neurological condition caused by repeated blows to the head. Ward said CTE, along with his post concussion syndrome, fill his days with fatigue, irritability, and headaches.

“You’re tired a lot in the middle of the day, or you get aggravation sometimes, also just headaches, bad headaches, three or four times a week, irritability. It’s serious,” Ward said. “A lot of it is making sure you’ve got enough water, but also Excedrin Migraine seems to be the only thing that helps. It’s really weird, I’ve tried a lot of stuff for it, it all did nothing. It doesn’t really take it away all the way, but it calms it down. Most days, you’ve just got to wait until it goes away, and when it goes away, the next one comes on.”

Ward mentioned that an increased awareness of potential head trauma has already changed the way boxers fight by allowing pro boxers increased time between fights to recover and hydrate.

“You used to see guys get banged up and then fight three weeks later, they’re not even healed up from the first one when the fight began. That’s the way it was back in the 50s and the 60s and incidentally, sometimes they were fighting more than once or twice a week,” Ward said. “Now they give you that day to rehydrate. That’s one good thing they’re doing that they didn’t have back in the 60s, 70s, and early 80s.”

In addition to taking precautions to keep fighters safe, Ward advises young boxers not to approach the sport lightly.

“As I’ve always said before, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to seriously go in one hundred percent, because you don’t play boxing. You play baseball, you play basketball, you play hockey, but you don’t play boxing. It’s just a sport you have to be really serious about if you want to get into it [...]  It’s the oldest sport there is and I don’t think it will go anywhere, but they’ve got to make some changes. Whether it’s with the concussion stuff, or getting people checked, making sure they’re good to fight, making sure that all the precautions are taken, making sure they have enough time when they weigh into the fight,” Ward said.

U.S Gold medal Olympian and former Heavyweight champion Ray Mercer said he has seen fighters with such severe brain damage that they can no longer function independently.

“Boxing’s dangerous, man. It only takes one punch. McCrory, I think he’s becoming like a vegetable and it’s been that way for a couple of decades. He’s got to have an assistant take care of him, I mean there’s real damage that can be done out there, just like anything else. When you get punched in the head, it’s really dangerous, it’s almost self explanatory. If you get hit in the head by someone who weighs 250, it can mess somebody up,” Mercer said.

Despite the apparent risks associated with fighting, Mercer believes that boxing, and the people who love it, will never go away.

“I think there will always be a future in Boxing, and football too, there will always be football. Reason being is cause it’s a sport and people have their choice in what they want to do. There’s risk in everything. There’s risk in playing golf. You might go out to a golf course and get bit by an alligator, you never know. There’s always a risk, but if a person chooses to do that and there’s a love that they have for that sport, then I think they should continue,” Mercer said.

Ward shares Mercer’s belief that professional boxing, all dangers included, has always been and will always be a popular combat sport, but he said he warns the future generation of fighters not to “go halfway” with the sport, as the consequences of an unsuccessful boxing career, Ward said, are extremely difficult.

“It’s something we love to do, obviously we should change anything we can, but it’s a violent sport, so you really can’t go halfway in boxing. You have to go all out and fight your hardest and suffer the consequences of not giving up and taking a beating if you have to, or you’ve gotta quit. [...] Fight smart, and be smart. Block your head, don’t fight like I fought,” Ward said. “In boxing, once you’re done, you’ve really got nothing after that [...] It’s ‘thanks for your help, thanks for your entertainment,’ and you’re done. There’s no benefit package, there’s no retirement, so if you don’t make it, and 90 percent of the fighters don’t make it, you’re in trouble. Especially if you have head issues.”

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