Gibson spoke to Joe Rogan on his history of brain trauma and how it changed the way he watched UFC fights.
Longtime UFC and MMA fan Mel Gibson is opening up about his struggles with mental health and how that journey has made him look at the damage fighters take in the cage a different way.
The famous actor and director was recently on the Joe Rogan Experience, where he discussed how a brain scan revealed abnormally high activity in areas of the brain associated with extreme PTSD.
“I went and got a brain scan by this guy called Daniel Amen, who’s this brain guy,” Gibson said. “He’s against all psych meds and stuff, but he thinks, like, let me have a look at your brain. And he put a radioactive tracer in me to photograph my brain.”
“He looked at my brain and he opens the file, I’m in there with the guy and he looks up and he goes, ‘Are you okay?’ And I said, ‘What?’ And he went, ‘Are you okay?’ And I said, ‘Yeah. I think so.’ And he he came over and he sat next to me, but very slowly and cautiously, and he said, ‘No. You’re not. And I said, what do you mean? He says, you got the worst case of PTSD I have ever seen.”
Mel Gibson: Like, I’m addicted to the UFC, right? I love it, but I know that these guys are…I feel kind of sorry for ’em.pic.twitter.com/3IVC9w4NfT
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) January 9, 2025
“And I said, ‘Like even worse than guys in war and s**t like that?’ And he goes, ‘Yeah.’ And he says, ‘You’re not okay.’ Jesus Christ. And I started to well up, you know. Like, ‘Oh no.’”
Gibson attributed the issues to concussions, which included multiple knockouts received playing rugby … and hanging out with old rugby buddies.
“I got a concussion at my daughter’s wedding,” he said. “This is really weird … A buddy of mine from Australia comes to the wedding, and he comes up, and I go to hug him. And he ducks down and he comes up, and he puts his shoulder into the point of my chin. The guy weighs 240. He puts his shoulder into the point of my chin and knocks me the f**k out … for the next 4 months, I’m messed up.”
Gibson is often visible at UFC events cageside, and he admitted his knowledge of how bad concussion symptoms can be makes the fights hard to watch sometimes.
“Like, I’m addicted to the UFC. Right? I love it,” Gibson said. “But I know that these guys are [getting brain damaged] — I feel kind of sorry for them.”
“And one of the guys, I know one of the guys fairly well. And usually, I’m pretty immune to it, but, like, he was in there, and he was fighting against [Alexander] Volkanovski. It was Brian Ortega, and he was getting his ass handed to him in that fight. He almost got [Volk] a couple of times, but yeah. Because I knew Brian, it was like my son was in there. I almost started crying. It got to me.”
“I was like, I should probably feel like this about all these guys,” he added. “But I don’t know them as well.”
The best way to enjoy the sport of MMA is to pick fighters you like and enjoy and cheer them on through their careers. It’s also the worst way because there’s the thrill of victory and agony of defeat. Seeing your fighter lose badly, seeing their momentum slow, seeing their star fade, and seeing the result of years of serious damage to their body … it can be rough.
“It becomes a problem for me when I’m friends with a guy,” Rogan said. “And then I see when they’re on the tail end of their career, and they can’t take shots anymore. And then when you talk to them, you recognize the speech patterns are slurring. “