Ishii may have suffered career ending injury in bout with Fedor

When Fedor Emelianenko rocked Satoshi Ishii and sent him to the hospital, the initial worry was about a broken nose. In the post-fight chatter, the blood was discussed as a factor in changing Ishii’s psychology during the fight. For some fighters, seeing their own blood can spook them. What Satoshi Ishii didn’t know when he got rattled by Fedor is that it may have very well been his last fight ever.

Putting the cherry on top of the proverbial sundae, Japanese weekly publication Cyzo (which has been on a very good run this month for fight business stories) reports that doctors have told Ishii that he suffered a cerebral edema from the NYE beating. As a result, he was warned that any further blows to the head would cause some serious damage. As Cyzo put it, Ishii is facing a retirement crisis. There had been some discussion that he would face Ricardo Arona in late March in Brazil but that fight didn’t look to be in the cards. After this latest development, the MMA prospects for Ishii look to be bleak as well.