Anthony Smith is not amused with Jake Paul’s claim of having “early signs of CTE.”
Earlier in the week, heading into his boxing match against Ben Askren, Jake Paul announced that he was experiencing early signs of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE). Following the claim, Paul received backlash from media, fans, and other members of the combat sports community. One person who took to Twitter to express his feelings and address this sensitive topic was Anthony Smith.
“My take: 1-He’s exactly as stupid and careless as we all thought. 2- Lying about this to be cool or whatever shows his absolute disrespect for the real fighters and their families that have and will suffer from the very real, devastating effects of CTE. He’s disgusting,” Smith wrote.
Smith has been in the sport of MMA professional since 2008. He is a staple of the UFC light heavyweight division and has fought some of the best, including Jon Jones. Smith has a right to be upset when a relative newcomer to combat sports makes such claims. CTE is a very serious condition that affects many fighters. The fact that Paul was so open to using this as a sort of badge of honor to prove his commitment to the sport.
“I’m putting my mental health on the line, my brain is on the line. Like you said, I’ve gone and gotten brain scans and have early signs of CTE,” Paul said to media (via MMAFighting.com.) But, I love this sport and wouldn’t trade it for anything else. And I’m a fighter and people will see that.”
Since the backlash and the comments made by Smith and others, Paul has retracted his prior statement and apologized for this claim in the first place.
“I wanna retract my comments made about CTE as it relates to me and my medical history. It’s a very serious condition that I should not have misspoken about.”
What did you think of Jake Paul’s comments on CTE?
