?I have degenerative discs in my neck and a bulging disc in my back and they?re saying that?s from taking head shots…? Bray.
?We knew there might be some problems coming along because of the boxing, but to actually see it happening and progressing and progressing this quickly as it has probably the last year, that?s been the toughest part, I think, for me,…It really went, it seems like, from one extreme to the other.? Lina Bray, John?s wife.
But according to a riveting article written by Robert Moralas in the Las Vegas Daily News, it gets worse, much worse for the highly respected and popular former heavyweight boxer turned trainer. John has been diagnosed with Pugilistic Dementia, Alzheimer?s and clinically diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, at the Cleveland Clinic in Las Vegas. Pugilistic Dementia is considered a sub-type of CTE. See: tp://www.dailynews.com/sports/20160709/john-bray-will-fight-alzeimers-other-dementia-to-finish
After a fine amateur career in which he won the National AAU Heavyweight Championship in 1991 and won the United States Amateur 201-lb championship. In 1992 Bray competed in the Olympic Trials Western Regionals and won his first match via KO, and then beat his second opponent, but then lost to Marlon Simpkins. The 46-year-old Bray went 15-3 as a professional but lacked the focus and probably the chin to reach the heights. But perhaps more relevant to this story, he served as a sparring partner for Evander Holyfield, Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis. He then became a successful trainer, but the damage had been done and he has now been forced into retirement.
As Able Sanchez says, ?He would put a positive fight, a positive light on everything…I?ve never known him to be a negative kind of guy.?
