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SAN BERANDINO- Ultimate Fighter Doug “Thunderfist” Lowen will be scratched from this weekend’s UFC 134 pay-per-view event after failing his pre-fight physical. Dr. Vikram Choudary, the physician who performed the physical examination on Lowen, said that there was not a red flag in the examination, but that Lowen is a ticking time bomb with a list of health problems so long that he should be hospitalized indefinitely due to his condition.
Choudary went on to say that Lowen’s health problems reminded him of a hypothetical question from medical school. “I’m not exactly sure where to start, but it’s a miracle of science that Mr. Lowen is able to stand up, let alone participate in professional sports. Starting from the ground up, he had two broken toes on his left foot that never properly healed and now look like mangled cocktail sausages. He has two staples in his right ankle that are holding his Achilles tendon in place. I asked him if he knew how they got there, and he told me that when he sprained his ankle in training a few years ago, he Googled the surgery that the doctor did on Curt Schilling in the 2004 World Series and tried it on himself so he wouldn’t miss a fight. He has severe tendonitis in his left knee from an old weight lifting accident, but that’s his good knee considering the fact that he had his right kneecap replaced with a lens from a pair of aviator sunglasses after kneeing a guy with a metal plate in his skull. And that’s just below the waist.”
Choudary added that Lowen has a ruptured spleen, a condition that can be fatal if not treated promptly, but that Lowen reported feeling the symptoms for “two or three years, ever since that fight got stopped for the guy headbutting me repeatedly in the stomach.” He also has no knuckles in his left index finger, which Dr. Choudary postulated might have something to do with Mr. Lowen’s nickname.
“The truly appalling thing is that Mr. Lowen has been approved for fight after fight in the UFC, and any one of these debilitating injuries should have been enough to keep him out of the Octagon,” Choudary said of Lowen, who has lost his last six fights to bring his career record to 9-23. “I was called in as an emergency doctor because UFC’s in-house physician was riding dune buggies in Wyomin
g. How anyone could let this human punching bag continue to put his face in front of other people’s fists and call himself a professional physician is beyond me.”[LEFT- Lowen after his last win.]
Choudary explained that Lowen’s problems go beyond what can be seen on a simple x-ray. After his initial examination, he had enough concern for Lowen’s health that he sent him to have a full MRI. The MRI indicated that Lowen had the marker for Chronic Traumatic Encephelopathy (CTE), the brain condition blamed for former professional wrestler Chris Benoit’s murder-suicide of his entire family. CTE expert Christopher Nowkinski weighed in by saying that allowing Lowen to fight with CTE would be “wildly irresponsible.” Nowinski went on to say that, “I understand that UFC is in the business of marketing violence, but at some point it becomes more likely that not that someone is going to die. If these competitors would rather get their names on Affliction shirts than see the age of 50, that’s their decision, but they should not be in the position to hurt other people.”
When presented with the results of the examination, Lowen seemed to be in denial about the conclusions. “I know that my brain thoughts are sometimes not as clear to me as the thinkings that there are for other people. I always do a punch or a kick better than book learnings. Does that make me too stupid to fight? I don’t know. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. But what I do for work is to fight and that’s what I do so that’s what I’ll do if they let me or not. I might just get a ticket and start a fight and bet on myself. It’s no big deal.”
Choudary explained that Lowen’s delusions arise from his severe psychological problems. “I’m not a psychiatrist, but from spending 20 minutes around the man, I can tell you that he has enough psychological problems that he should not be involved in contact sports.” He said that Lowen likely has high-grade depression and a borderline personality disorder, which creates a vicious cycle whereby Lowen hates his life and fights to compensate, only to put himself in a worse position. “All things considered, Lowen is one of the most unhealthy people I have ever encountered.” But Choudary went on to say that Lowen, as sick as he may be, is typical of his profession, and that he expects the average life expectancy of a UFC fighter to be somewhere between 40-45 years.
Choudary explained that Lowen’s problems go beyond what can be seen on a simple x-ray. After his initial examination, he had enough concern for Lowen’s health that he sent him to have a full MRI. The MRI indicated that Lowen had the marker for Chronic Traumatic Encephelopathy (CTE), the brain condition blamed for former professional wrestler Chris Benoit’s murder-suicide of his entire family. CTE expert Christopher Nowkinski weighed in by saying that allowing Lowen to fight with CTE would be “wildly irresponsible.” Nowinski went on to say that, “I understand that UFC is in the business of marketing violence, but at some point it becomes more likely that not that someone is going to die. If these competitors would rather get their names on Affliction shirts than see the age of 50, that’s their decision, but they should not be in the position to hurt other people.”
When presented with the results of the examination, Lowen seemed to be in denial about the conclusions. “I know that my brain thoughts are sometimes not as clear to me as the thinkings that there are for other people. I always do a punch or a kick better than book learnings. Does that make me too stupid to fight? I don’t know. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. But what I do for work is to fight and that’s what I do so that’s what I’ll do if they let me or not. I might just get a ticket and start a fight and bet on myself. It’s no big deal.”
Choudary explained that Lowen’s delusions arise from his severe psychological problems. “I’m not a psychiatrist, but from spending 20 minutes around the man, I can tell you that he has enough psychological problems that he should not be involved in contact sports.” He said that Lowen likely has high-grade depression and a borderline personality disorder, which creates a vicious cycle whereby Lowen hates his life and fights to compensate, only to put himself in a worse position. “All things considered, Lowen is one of the most unhealthy people I have ever encountered.” But Choudary went on to say that Lowen, as sick as he may be, is typical of his profession, and that he expects the average life expectancy of a UFC fighter to be somewhere between 40-45 years.
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