The undefeated Bellator middleweight champion Rafael Lovato Jr. MMA career may be in question. On an episode of Joe Rogan’s “JRE MMA Show,” Lovato revealed he is dealing with a brain disease called Cavernoma. The Mayo Clinic states that this brain disease causes “abnormally formed blood vessels” that can develop and create problems in the spinal cord or brain.
?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">If you don’t know what these pictures mean, please watch my recent episode of JRE (link in my bio.) • This is what I saw in my head 6 weeks before my title fight. To say this shook me is a huge understatement! I had no idea how to process discovering I have a disease in my brain that could have serious, even life threatening affects on me right while I was in the middle of preparing for the biggest fight of my life. A moment that I had worked my entire life for. From training under my father as a boy in the JKD system, to discovering my first passion of Jiu-Jitsu, and dedicating myself to the art as a teenager and setting out to make history as an American in the sport at a time where 99% of Jiu-Jitsu was still located in Brazil. To making the decision to get out of my comfort zone of Jiu-Jitsu and becoming a white belt all over again. MMA brought together every phase of my life and my complete martial arts journey and family, but I didn’t see it that way at first. I never really enjoyed the environment and culture of MMA, but I knew it was the ultimate challenge and way to express myself as a martial artist and that I had to do it. Fight after fight, I fell in love with it more & more. I fell in love with having all my teachers and my family together on a mission and I got to be in the middle of their love, their knowledge, and their inspiration. We sacrificed, we grinded, we had tons of fun, we learned and grew as a family, and I fully discovered who I was as a martial artist and a man. Everything I am and everything I have ever done was on display in each fight. I was the warrior representing their life’s work and at the same time showing mine. We set out to become World Champions together and I was not going to let anything stop me from completing my destiny. The fight had already been postponed 5 months and I was going on a 7 month training camp thinking everyday about this fight. All I wanted was the opportunity. If it was the last fight of my life, I didn’t care, I just knew that I had to do it. I was ready to put my health on the line. I just knew that we as a team and a family couldn’t come this far and not get our shot. (Continued in the comments)
Lovato Jr. spoke openly about finding out about the issue prior to his fight with Gegard Mousasi for the Bellator middleweight championship at Bellator 223 on June 22, 2019, in London, England. On the episode which was transcribed by MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn, Lovato Jr. met with a radiologist for a brain scan to get clearance for the fight and Lovato said “The radiologist, with really no candor or an easy or soft way of saying it, was like, ‘Dude, have you seen your brain before? There’s some stuff in here you need to see.’ 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 – not a normal scan. But I don’t know – like shades of discoloration. You could see that it wasn’t normal. He didn’t even know what it was at the time.”
Lovato Jr. dealt with the reality that he might not have been able to fight, while still trying to stay ready for the fight if he can get cleared. He went to Brazil to finish out his training and met with “Neurologists and specialists” in Brazil to get more opinions on whether it will be safe for him to fight. They all came back with the same conclusion that he shouldn’t fight, which Lovato felt that “Fighting already isn’t good for your brain you know what I mean. Getting hit in the head isn’t good for your brain. And I think just looking at it when you see it and you know I’m going to get hit in the head and what I do, your automatically going to be like ‘Hey you know theirs already this extra bit of danger that we are putting into a dangerous situation. Let’s not play. Let’s not roll the dice.'” Around this time, Lovato Jr. was also dealing with a hamstring injury, that he says in the interview still bothers him today.
With the revelation of his brain disease, the fear of his health and the worry that he won’t be able to compete for the championship Lovato Jr. was going through a difficult time. Lovato went to see one more doctor in Brazil and this time the doctor gave him a different response then the other doctors. Lovato Jr. felt the doctor “captivated” him by his composure and that this doctor was the first time ask him “How does he feel.” After an evaluation, the doctor told him “Let me just see what I can find, but I guarantee I’m not going to find anything that says head impact or trauma is going to increase your risk of Covanorma bleeding.”
?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">The incredible feeling of peace, knowing you have given everything you have to be your best. London 🇬🇧 I’m on my way!!!! • #TeamLovato #EvolucaoThai #RibeiroJiuJitsu #LovatoJiuJitsu #GreenStrength #PickloWrestling #Budokon #OnAMission #AndNew #BellatorMMA #WorldChampion #MMA #BellatorLondon @wartribegear @onnit @resiliencecbd @northsouthjiujitsu
Lovato Jr. says that the doctor did his research and found nothing. The doctor then said, “You can bleed you, you know. You can be oozing blood at any point in time, little by little and it can become an issue at some point in time. But theirs is no treatment, we are not going to do surgery. There is nothing that is going to happen until you have symptoms and until you show signs. And because I can’t find any studies that say getting hit in the head will make it worse and because you are a normal functioning person at this point, I think it’s fine for you to fight.”
The doctor gave Lavato Jr. a letter that helped him and ultimately he was approved two weeks before the fight.
?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading" style=" color:#000; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none; word-wrap:break-word;" target="_blank">Dream Achieved ~ Destiny Fulfilled • It all starts in your mind, but it must resonate in your heart. Over the last two months of my camp, I cried many times when I thought of how it would feel to get that belt tied around my waist. That incredible feeling of glory & satisfaction of achieving something I wanted with all my heart & have worked my whole life for, is what pushed me during the hardest moments of my camp & is also what lifted me to win that final round. Because I not only saw this moment, but I actually FELT this moment so many times already, I believed that I not only had the power to make it come true, but that it was my destiny to make it come true. • Now I can finally throw away that picture I’ve had in my training bag the last 2.5 years 😁 • #MondayMotivation #Dream #Believe #Heart #NeverStop #AnythingIsPossible #TeamLovato #Underdog #MissionAccomplished #DreamAchieved #AndNew #BellatorMMA #WorldChampion
Lovato Jr. beat Mousasi by majority decision to win the Bellator middleweight championship and improving his MMA record to 10-0. He hasn’t fought since then, but he hasn’t officially retired yet. When speaking on his status in the interview Lovato said, “I’m not officially retiring. I am sort of I guess indefinitely on the sidelines right now. I am actively seeing more doctors and working towards learning more about this(Cavernorma).”
Bellator made a statement regarding the status of Lovato Jr. and the middleweight championship to MMA Junkie. Bellator says they are working with Lovato Jr. to figure out what’s next and “That he remains the Bellator middleweight champion, and no decision has been made regarding the title or the future of the 185-pound division.” Lovato still has hopes to continue his MMA career. If he can’t get approved to fight again, he is okay with not fighting. “If it’s really unsafe and I’m not going to get approved ever, I finally got to a place to accept that. I’m going to move forward on with my life teaching and doing what I do.”
