Bellator middleweight champion Rafael Lovato Jr.‘s MMA career is on hold due to a brain affliction, Lovato said Wednesday on Joe Rogan’s MMA Show.
Lovato said he was diagnosed last year with cavernoma, a condition marked my abnormal clusters of brain cells in the brain or spinal cord, according to the Mayo Clinic. Lovato said he has one cluster on his brain that is somewhere between the size of a golf ball and a baseball, as well as other smaller ones.
The clusters are susceptible to leakage and Lovato said he is currently out “indefinitely” from MMA. The United Kingdom’s Safe MMA regulatory body cleared him to fight in 2019, but has since gone back on its decision, Lovato said. He was supposed to fight this month in California, a title defense against Gegard Mousasi, but the California State Athletic Commission (CSAC) has not cleared him.
Lovato, though, said he is not retiring from the sport. He said several doctors have told him that it would be safe for him to continue fighting and he’s still seeking out more information with the hopes of one day being cleared.
“I’m not officially retiring,” Lovato said. “I’m, I guess, indefinitely on the sidelines. I am actively seeing more doctors and working towards learning more about this. Obviously, I want to keep fighting.”
No decision has been made yet on the future of the Bellator middleweight title, sources told ESPN. Lovato said he would understand if the promotion has to move on without him as champion for the time being.
“I don’t want to hold up the division,” Lovato said. “Bellator is being very kind with time as we’re going through all this. But I understand there’s guys out there that deserve to fight for the title. And if they need to set up a fight to determine the new champion, I understand. I’m gonna be over here doing everything I can to hopefully get approved to come back.”
Lovato (10-0), a multiple-time Brazilian jiu-jitsu world champion, won the belt from Mousasi last June. The 36-year-old Oklahoma native has been victorious in all six of his Bellator fights.
“I’m right in the middle of this,” Lovato said. “I’m just gonna keep seeing more doctors and try to learn more about this. If it’s really unsafe and I’m not gonna get approved ever, I finally got to a place where I can accept that. I’m gonna move forward with my life teaching, what I do at home and all my students worldwide.”
Lovato said he wanted to open up about his story, because most athletic commissions don’t require brain scans and he wanted to raise awareness about how necessary they are. The scan last year that turned up cavernoma was the first one Lovato said he had ever been administered. Lovato has been a pro MMA fighter since 2014.
“If you fight in those states, to me it’s on your best interest … get a scan done to see what [your brain] looks like,” Lovato said. “I’m hoping that through this we can figure out if cavernoma is safe or not.”