{"id":41015,"date":"2026-10-12T04:27:05","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T04:27:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Former-UFC-fighter-becomes-doctor-now-researches-brain-damage-203175"},"modified":"2026-10-12T04:27:05","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T04:27:05","slug":"former-ufc-fighter-becomes-doctor-now-researches-brain-damage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/former-ufc-fighter-becomes-doctor-now-researches-brain-damage\/","title":{"rendered":"Former UFC fighter becomes doctor, now researches brain damage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/former-ufc-fighter-becomes-doctor-now-researches-brain-damage.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"\/><\/div>\n<p> Former <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/organizations\/Ultimate-Fighting-Championship-2\"><br \/>\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> featherweight <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Thiago-Tavares-4647\">Thiago<br \/>\nTavares<\/a> has taken on a new challenge outside the cage.<\/p>\n<p>Tavares (24-11-1) retired from mixed martial arts in 2021 and used<br \/>\nsome of his career earnings to pursue medical school. The Brazilian<br \/>\nis now a practicing physician specializing in neurology and is<br \/>\nworking on a master&#8217;s thesis exploring potential markers of chronic<br \/>\ntraumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in former fighters.<\/p>\n<div id=\"adViAi\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Thiago Tavares seeks potential CTE markers in former UFC<br \/>\nfighters<\/h2>\n<p>Speaking to Sherdog, Tavares explained that CTE can currently be<br \/>\ndefinitively diagnosed only by examining brain tissue after death.<br \/>\nHis research aims to explore whether brain wave measurements and<br \/>\nartificial intelligence could help identify a reliable marker in<br \/>\nliving patients.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnfortunately, the only way to confirm CTE is through the study of<br \/>\nbrain tissue (a post-mortem biopsy) in the anatomopathological<br \/>\nexam,\u201d Tavares said. \u201cThere is still no reliable marker able to<br \/>\nindicate that an athlete is affected by CTE, so based on certain<br \/>\nsymptoms we say that he has traumatic encephalopathy syndrome.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tavares said the project will involve 40 former UFC fighters from<br \/>\nhis generation who competed between 2010 and 2017. The team plans<br \/>\nto use a helmet equipped for electroencephalography to measure<br \/>\nbrain activity, along with an assessment of symptoms, to search for<br \/>\na potential marker.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will use a helmet that performs a functional<br \/>\nelectroencephalogram and measures the brain&#8217;s waves, including the<br \/>\nuse of AI in an attempt to find that marker, on top of, obviously,<br \/>\nthe in-depth study of the symptoms that would allow us to state<br \/>\nthat an individual has CTE even before [they] die,\u201d Tavares<br \/>\nadded.<\/p>\n<p>The former fighter hopes his medical work can give back to the<br \/>\nsport that supported his education and career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverything I have in my life, the UFC gave me,\u201d Tavares said. \u201cI<br \/>\nhope that at the next UFC in Brazil I get the chance to thank<br \/>\n<a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/search\/gallery-fighter?q=dana+white\">Dana<br \/>\nWhite<\/a>, Joe Silva and Sean Shelby in person. And I hope that,<br \/>\nwith my work in medicine, I can give some of that back by helping<br \/>\nthe future generations of this sport.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Ultimate Fighting Championship featherweight Thiago Tavares has taken on a new challenge outside the cage. Tavares (24-11-1) retired from mixed martial arts in 2021 and used some of his career earnings to pursue medical school. The Brazilian is now a practicing physician specializing in neurology and is working on a master&#8217;s thesis exploring potential [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41016,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}