I don't recommend anybody becoming a fighter.
The fact remains, in the wrestling industry there is a very high occurrence of untimely deaths for a lot of different reasons. I feel it's the industry's fault. I don't think these guys and women, but mostly guys are the ones dying inordinately young, I don't think that they are told all the risks of what they're getting into.
On any play where there's a scramble of 22 men, blindside hits and unprotected hits on knees occur.
Actors are always nervous about not only hurting each other, but maybe perhaps hitting each other's face and ending one's career.
When you're young, you don't think very far ahead. You just think in terms of the next day, the next week, the next competition. You don't think about injuries that could threaten your long-term health.
I now realize that the small hills you see on ski slopes are formed around the bodies of forty-seven-year-olds who tried to learn snowboarding.
I've come to accept that the life of a frontrunner is a hard one, that he will suffer more injuries than most men and that many of these injuries will not be accidental.
You mean guys don't get injured in spring training? Guys get hurt walking down the street.
When you look back in history and see other fighters coming back, it's never really been good for them.
I'm glad that I just played baseball, because I'm sure I had a much longer baseball career than I would've had a football career. I did miss football, but I didn't miss some of the injuries from football.
That's one of the things you get when you're playing golf. You get bad backs, bad necks.
You can't control injuries, can't control guys getting fired and stuff like that.
I've kind of banned myself from motorcycles. I've had broken ribs, broken shoulder, wrists, leg, broken collarbone - and it was all from motocross or rugby. All of my injuries have come from outside of sailing.
Oh, there's a lot of breaks in our sport. Strained muscles, breaks, tears. I've seen teeth fly out before mouth guards were compulsory. Feet fractures are quite common, cheeks, faces, jaws, legs.
Crashes are the worst thing because your wounds stick to you, so you are sweating into your road rash all day and when you try to sleep your wounds are sticking to the bed sheets. It is part of the job and we know the risks.
As a forward it is always a bit easier to avoid the kind of challenges that can cause impact injuries.
