Patrick Holohan’s fighting career is over.
The former UFC flyweight/ internationally renowned tea ambassador announced he was being forced to hang up his gloves for good on Monday because of an extremely rare blood condition. The Hooligan explained his Factor XIII deficiency on Monday’s MMA Hour.
“When I was eight years of age I was diagnosed with it. It’s extremely rare. It’s called a Factor XIII deficiency. It’s how a clot is healed after it forms over a cut. It’s actually got to do with after damage.”
“Say if you get cut, the cut is healing, the clot doesn’t form properly. When I was diagnosed at that age, one in five million people get it, so it’s rare. I got, like a replacement for it. It’s kind of like taking a vitamin nearly, where you replace it.”
“It wasn’t as crazy as it sounds. Before I was diagnosed I used to have bruising and things like that, but the minute I was diagnosed and was getting treatment for it, I was good again.”
Holohan explained that he had been diagnosed with the condition when he was a child, but it was only flagged by UFC doctors following an injury he sustained following his main event clash with Louis Smolka at UFC Dublin 3 last year.
“I walked into John’s gym at 19-years of age to learn jiu-jitsu. I didn’t expect to be going to the UFC and fighting in the main event. As the process went on, I never denied anything, I never hid anything but when the UFC found out after Dublin, they got other information and weighed it up with their own doctors that they wouldn’t be able to pass me for a medical anymore.”
“When I got injured in Dublin, I had a surgery and a team of haemophilia doctors were there. They had went back after Dublin, I had hurt my disc again in my back, and it’s just the way it came out that way. They were straight away onto the UFC and took all the precautions they could do.”
The Hooligan added that a fighter who suffers from the rare condition is especially at risk, considering all the shots they take to the head.
“There’s increased chances of cranium bleeds. So, I’d be of a higher percentage of somebody who’d maybe get a bleed. No doctor is going to pass you fit to fight.”
