MMA Junkie<\/a>). \u201cThe radiologist, with really no candor or an easy or soft way of saying it, was like, \u2018Dude, have you seen your brain before? There\u2019s some stuff in here you need to see.\u2019 He pulls me into the room and shows me on the screen, pointing out what looked like little balls. It looked like something was wrong \u2013 not a normal scan. But I don\u2019t know \u2013 like shades of discoloration. You could see that it wasn\u2019t normal. He didn\u2019t even know what it was at the time.<\/p>\n\u201cI go back and he tells me that he did some research and he believes I have a disease called cavernoma,” Lovato Jr. continued. “He hits me with that. I had no idea what cavernoma was. He said, \u2018Look, I\u2019m not signing this paper. You need to go see a specialist and get looked at. But as far as I know, you should not fight. You should not be fighting.’\u201d<\/p>\n
Lovato Jr. says after speaking with doctors he found out the rare brain condition is hereditary and is not life-threatening. Yet, there are problems with it and the middleweight champ has been told he will not be cleared to fight in Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s very adamant that I should not continue fighting,\u201d Lovato said. \u201cHe says it was a mistake that I was able to fight in London. And, moving forward I will not be approved in Europe again. At this point, Europe is a no.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Lovato Jr. being uncleared to fight in Europe, he is uncertain about his fighting future in North America. So, the middleweight champion says his career is on pause as he doesn’t know when he will be able to return to the cage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not officially retiring. I am indefinitely on the sidelines right now,\u201d Lovato said. \u201cI am actively seeing more doctors and working toward learning more about this. Obviously I want to keep fighting. I still have hope that if I can continue to still see more doctors and get more knowledge.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is such a rare and unique thing. No one knows too much. I\u2019m getting some people saying, \u2018No. No way.\u2019 Then I\u2019ve got these other specialists and people who have dealt with it that go, \u2018Yeah, it\u2019s OK.\u2019 It\u2019s indefinite.\u201d<\/p>\n
With Rafael Lovato Jr. being out indefinitely whether Bellator decides to strip him and make a vacant title fight is to be seen.<\/p>\n
What do you make of Rafael Lovato Jr. revealing he has a rare brain condition? Sound off in the comment section, PENN Nation!<\/p>\n
This article first appeared on\u00a0<\/i>BJPENN.com<\/i><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on 1\/29\/2020.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rafael Lovato Jr. doesn’t know if he will fight again. The 36-year-old has not fought since his upset win over Gegard Mousasi to win the Bellator middleweight title in June of 2019. He’s 10-0 as a pro recently discovered he has a problem that went undetected because he often fought with commissions that didn’t require […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54463,"featured_media":339607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[44,39498],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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