Ian McCall Undergoing Brain Treatment
Flyweight fighter Ian McCall hasn’t been seen in the Octagon since January of 2015, when he suffered a unanimous decision loss to John Lineker at UFC 183.
A reason that McCall has been on the sideline is due to issues with his head and more specifically his brain, which he is now getting treatment on.
“I don’t want to say anything bad about the UFC,” McCall said on The MMA Hour. “The UFC has taken care of me since day one. They’ve never wronged me, they’ve never done anything bad. This is my own fault. This is my own doing. Picking this sport as a profession … overdosing on drugs when I was down and out. There’s a lot wrong with my brain, it’s not just the punching. And on top of that 15 years of fighting professionally isn’t good for you. I don’t know if I’ll fight again. I have to figure out these issues. We still have no idea what’s wrong with my stomach. Doctors haven’t been able to figure out anything really, so I’m on my own. I’m sitting here trying this brain stimulation treatment for six weeks and hopefully it works.”
McCall has been trying to get fights booked since UFC 183, but they always fell through due to health issues on his or his opponent's behalf.
The UFC has been standing by McCall as he gets treated, but the flyweight star now feels that his entire professional MMA career is something he has started to regret.
“My whole career is a regret … I don’t hold any ill will toward the sport, it’s a weird place that people at the end of their career kind of go over. And no one talks about it, people fight it. I’m not gonna fight it,” McCall said. “People make Chris Benoit out to be – I always thought he was a f*cking monster for what he did. And then being with (my wife) Alicia and being around wrestlers and the stories you hear about Chris and how good of a person he was and how amazing of a father he was, all of this stuff, and it’s the TBI or drugs – I’m not saying he was on drugs – or steroids or whatever. That stuff drives people crazy and for me to think that through hurting my brain I could hurt someone else, like the people I love? Sorry. Not gonna happen. I’m not going to ever, ever let that happen. So I’m at least going to hop on it now and try and fix it before it gets worse and if I can fight again then cool. If I don’t fight again then sure, my whole career is a regret, but whatever, I had a lot of fun.”
There is no time frame on when the flyweight star could make a final decision on his professional MMA career.
