Christine Ferea has spent years putting her fists to use to make a career in combat sports, but the BKFC women’s flyweight champion will also be donating her brain to science when it’s all said and done.
For those who are not familiar with Ferea’s work, the 41-year-old combat veteran is easily one of the most dominant bareknuckle fighters on the BKFC roster today. She has compiled a near-perfect 8-1 record since joining the promotion back in 2018, including three-straight title defenses and six stoppages in total. Ferea is basically the O.G. of the BKFC’s women’s division.
Despite fighting into her 40’s, Ferea is comfortable putting her health on the line when she enters the ring. That’s because the bareknuckle fighter took part in a brain study nearly a decade ago and has remained in the testing program ever since. It has provided her with valuable information about her overall well-being and what she’s been doing to her body, specifically her brain.
“I didn’t know what it was at first, and I went in and they do a brain scan on you, and it lets you know if your cognitive [function] is getting messed up, if your brain is damaged from the hits,” Ferea told MMA Fighting. “The first one is like a two-hour scan, and then every three years they do the two-hour scan, and then I do [another scan] every year.
“They let me know if I’m cognitively declining, if my brain is declining, if there’s brain damage accumulating. They do several cognitive tests, balance, so many different things to make sure [I’m healthy].”
Keeping track of her brain activity and cognitive function has given Ferea a sense of relief when it comes to fighting. Combat sports is such a dangerous road to travel, but if you’re monitoring your health and understanding what the damage sustained during a fight can do to you long-term then things become more manageable.
“Now I don’t have to wonder,” she explained. “Am I getting messed up? Am I taking too many hits? How am I going to affected down the road? Because I have a meeting with the doctor after every MRI and the cognitive [testing] and all that kind of testing, and then they read the results, and then I meet with him right after. He runs down everything for me, he’ll tell me. I trust him. It’s good not to wonder what I’m doing to my brain every year.
“If I’m starting to decline, I’m quitting. Period. I’m not messing with my brain. If I break bones, if my back hurts, my shoulder, if that hurts I still care about that, but not as much as my brain.”
After all is said and done, Ferea plans to donate her brain to science for further study, specifically for chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
“I definitely will give my brain to the study,” Ferea said. “It’s not like I need to keep it or anyone else needs to keep it.”