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Tragic.
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Really Sad , I knew Nam from Orange County
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BJ 
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A few years before I met her, my late wife, Jana, worked as a medical tech for Bill Kessler, the OC fight doc, so she got to know a lot of the fighters including Nam Phan & she said he was one of the nicest guys. She also became good friends with Shane del Rosaro & Carla Esparza.
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RIP
bt Becoming one of my Faves
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Yeah, Jana was hanging out with him about 3 weeks before he died & was crushed when she heard the news. She knew all those guys, Uncle Creepy, Rob Emerson, Chiva & so many others. Hell, she helped Chiva with his English & citizenship tests while she was working at Coach Oyama’s gym in Irvine.
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i used to meat him for a bagel at i love bagels with his GF CandyButt
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I keep saying it, the MMA CTE is going to become increasingly apparent and orders of magnitude worse than other sports. None of these guys are getting paid enough for the horror they have coming.
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I went to the same bjj school with Nam back in the day 2001. He rolled very hard but he was always humble and gracious after tapping someone out. “Good job”, “thanks” etc. There were other students there who would roll hard and try to hurt people. Other notable students at this school were Jared Rollins who fought war machine on TUF, and former OG mod KwhDjira (I think he left the OG on bad terms).
Nam was friendly and would talk about his dream to own an MMA studio and be a pro fighter. He was around 20 yrs old at that time.
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Boxing is worse. Anyone who has even a borderline functioning brain knows that a lot of sports come with risk including MMA.
Most people make it out just fine, some don’t. That’s just how it is. If you can’t handle the risk go find something else to do.
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Did you train at Franco de Camargo’s?
Pics of Candy Butt
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RIP Franco.
Nam seems to have been affected so young, typically it seems like it kicks in a good decade or 2 after the end of fighter’s careers.
Or in Brendan Schaub’s case, 10 years before his career started.
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Reminds me of a Quarry brother in a way.
Sad to see.
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Did he ever do boxing? I can’t think of many MMA fighters that are so damaged.
Edit: nevermind, he is still fighting in Muay Thai competitions according to this interview and did boxing too
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Exactly. Unfortunately, if Nam’s symptoms are this bad already, then he’ll likely be in horrible shape in another 5 years or so.
I’ve seen the toll that the fight game takes on people up close & personal. Two of my best friends that I came up in the amateurs with when we were kids & who also turned pro around the same time as I did, are both now in advanced stages of dementia & living in assisted living facilities here in Buffalo. One is my age & the other is almost 2 years younger.
I’ve visited them a couple of times, but seeing them in that state is just too hard on me. It’s like whistling through the graveyard. I can’t understand how in the hell I engaged in more fights than them & sparred with infinitely better fighters than they did & yet I’m fine.
My neurologist thinks it’s genetic. He says I was blessed with a short, thick neck & a harder head than most. Plus no one in my family has ever suffered from any sort of dementia.
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Yet they chose to do that shit! Oh well!
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