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’s thesis exploring potential markers of chronic
traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, in former fighters.
Advertisement
Thiago Tavares seeks potential CTE markers in former UFC
fighters
Speaking to Sherdog, Tavares explained that CTE can currently be
definitively diagnosed only by examining brain tissue after death.
His research aims to explore whether brain wave measurements and
artificial intelligence could help identify a reliable marker in
living patients.
“Unfortunately, the only way to confirm CTE is through the study of
brain tissue (a post-mortem biopsy) in the anatomopathological
exam,” Tavares said. “There is still no reliable marker able to
indicate that an athlete is affected by CTE, so based on certain
symptoms we say that he has traumatic encephalopathy syndrome.”
Tavares said the project will involve 40 former UFC fighters from
his generation who competed between 2010 and 2017. The team plans
to use a helmet equipped for electroencephalography to measure
brain activity, along with an assessment of symptoms, to search for
a potential marker.
“We will use a helmet that performs a functional
electroencephalogram and measures the brain’s waves, including the
use of AI in an attempt to find that marker, on top of, obviously,
the in-depth study of the symptoms that would allow us to state
that an individual has CTE even before [they] die,” Tavares
added.
The former fighter hopes his medical work can give back to the
sport that supported his education and career.
“Everything I have in my life, the UFC gave me,” Tavares said. “I
hope that at the next UFC in Brazil I get the chance to thank
Dana
White, Joe Silva and Sean Shelby in person. And I hope that,
with my work in medicine, I can give some of that back by helping
the future generations of this sport.”