The Nevada Athletic Commission will implement new testing protocols
in an effort to curtail head injuries in combat sports, according
to a report from the
Las Vegas Review-Journal.
NAC officials announced its new fighter safety requirements on
Tuesday during a press conference in Washington, D.C.
NAC Executive Director Bob Bennett said that the commission is
excited to be implementing a new policy that will require all
licensed professional fighters — boxers, kickboxers and mixed
martial artists — to undergo regular brain health testing. Bennett
stated that the continuous testing won’t cost the fighters any
money and that the exams will only take about 15 minutes to
complete.
Dr. Charles Bernick, associate director of the Cleveland Clinic Lou
Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, said that the fighters
will be required to undergo the exams using the Cleveland Clinic C3
testing tool.
“We’re extremely pleased by the commission’s decision to require
regular brain health testing using the C3 app in Nevada, which was
a decision influenced largely by data collected from the
Professional Fighters Brain Health Study,” Bernick said in a
statement.
The announcement revealed that the testing might be able to use
positron emission tomography (PET) scans to detect protein tau,
which builds up when brain tissue progressively degenerates.
Bernick believes it could be involved in chronic traumatic
encephalopathy, commonly known as CTE.
The new testing procedures likely won’t go into effect until June
or July, according to the Review-Journal report. Unknown at present
is how frequently the fighters will have to undergo the testing,
and where the tests will fall in relation to their scheduled
fights.
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