Julie Kedzie to donate brain for research on CTE
Former UFC fighter Julie Kedzie, who is widely considered to be a pioneer for women’s mixed martial arts, has pledged to donate her brain for scientific research on the effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
CTE is a brain condition linked to repeated blows to the head and concussion. The condition, which gradually gets worse over time and leads to dementia, can only be diagnosed post-mortem.
“It seems a very normal thing to do,” Kedzie told BBC Sport while discussing her decision to donate her brain. “I’ve been hit in the head a lot so we might as well see what is in there and get some good out of it for data. If there is a way that I can still keep pushing in this field [of mixed martial arts] and advancing the cause of women, then yeah.
“I want to give back to the women in this sport because there are all these studies on male athletes’ brains and there might be something completely different from a female athlete’s perspective,” Kedzie added.
Just 45 cases of CTE were confirmed worldwide when the Concussion Legacy Foundation (CLF) began investigating in 2007, and now more than 10,000 people, including Kedzie, have taken part in studies.
Dr Chris Nowinski, who has a PHD in neuroscience and is a former WWE wrestler, co-founded the CLF after “suffering chronic symptoms” during his own sporting career.
“Most professional MMA fighters that we’ve studied have had CTE and will continue to have CTE,” Dr Nowinski says.
“We don’t have 70-year-old former UFC fighters yet, so we haven’t fully seen what we’ve created here.”
“Fireball” Kedzie who is now 42-years-old retired from pro MMA competition in 2013 after her second loss in the UFC.
Having started her pro MMA career in March 2004, Kedzie left the sport nearly a decade later with a record 16-13. She fought the likes of Tara LaRosa, Gina Carano, Tonya Evinger, Kaitlin Young, Alexis Davis, Miesha Tate, Germaine de Randamie, Bethe Correia, among others.
