Jake Paul walks back CTE claims

Jake Paul had claimed that a doctor had diagnosed him with early signs of CTE, a chronic brain disease caused by blows to the head.

Jake Paul fights Ben Askren tomorrow night, April 17th, live on Triller. During the pre-fight press conference, Paul had some odd things to say about his health heading into the biggest fight of his career.

“You know, it’s a dangerous sport,” said Paul. “And that’s why, when people question my dedication to it—it’s like, I’m showing up every single day. 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. But, I love this sport and wouldn’t trade it for anything else. And I’m a fighter and people will see that. Whether it’s after Saturday night or whether it’s a year from now, they will see that I’m a fighter.”

It’s unlikely that Paul received a brain scan that could reveal early signs of chromatic traumatic encephalopathy; a disease caused by blows to the head, which causes symptoms that can include vertigo, memory loss, depression and increased risk of suicide. There are scans currently in trials that have shown promising signs of detecting CTE, but these are not available to the general public.

Today Paul walked back these claims.

“I wanna retract my comments made about CTE as it relates to me and my medical history,” tweeted Paul. “It’s a very serious condition that I should not have misspoken about.”

With Paul retracting his statement the athletic commission in Georgia, where the fight is taking place, can breathe a big sigh of relief. Had Paul stood by his comments they would be faced with the option of pulling Paul from the fight—ruining the biggest combat sports event the state has had in some time—or allowing a fighter to compete with prior knowledge that they were suffering from a serious brain condition.

But now it seems as though we can chalk up Paul’s claims to promotional material. With that sorted out, and both Paul and Askren making weight, all things are go for tomorrow night’s circus fight.