Heather Hardy put every little thing she had into combating. Now she’s paying the value for it.
Regardless of being a comparatively small and unassuming girl out of Gerritsen Seashore, Brooklyn, ‘The Heat’ was one in all boxing’s most fierce females. Whereas some MMA followers could keep in mind her run underneath the Bellator banner, it was contained in the squared circle the place she really shined, constructing a powerful 24-3 document and capturing the WBC world featherweight championship.
Sadly, Heather Hardy’s profession got here to a crashing halt in August 2023 after going 10 rounds with former undisputed light-welterweight queen Amanda Serrano. Instantly following their struggle, Hardy knew that one thing was severely improper.
“My vision was split, and double, and bloody,” Hardy mentioned in an interview with Hamilton Nolan. “Generally that occurs after sparring, you get a headache, however now it had lasted two days. So I went for the MRI, as a result of fighters know that’s while you go to the physician. You will have medical insurance for 30 days [after a fight]. So I went, I bought my MRI, I went to the attention physician. That’s after they instructed me that I can’t get hit within the head, ever.
“There was swelling, likely around the optic nerve. There’s a lot of research that was done with fighters who’ve lost their sight, and the things that happen with those kind of traumas, combined with multiple concussions. They explained that every time you get a concussion, a piece of your brain dies, and you just go on living without it. And I’ve had too much dead brain.”
Earlier than getting the prognosis that will finish her profession straight away, Heather Hardy had deliberate on competing in three completely different sports activities in 2024, together with a bare-knuckle struggle and a possible blended martial arts bout with Serrano.
“By February of 2024 I had decided I needed to do this bare knuckle fight,” Hardy continued. “And by April 11, I had the prognosis that I might by no means get hit within the head once more. And it wasn’t till September that I bought medical insurance and bought my very own MRI. As a result of for all that point, the fee was simply sending me to the attention physician. And that physician was so good, however he stored saying, ‘It’s not your eyes, it’s your mind.’ They had been slapping glasses on my face.
“Let me let you know, CTE is an actual factor. TBIs, traumatic mind accidents, are an actual factor. I used to be leaving messages, asking for a therapist. As a result of I stored saying, while you consider CTE and folks getting actually offended—like Aaron Hernandez killed these individuals. He additionally killed himself. , you get very offended, after which very unhappy. I stored on saying that I used to be the First Girl of Brooklyn boxing. I’m the First Girl of mind harm.
“Have a look at me, examine me, assist me! Like, do one thing for me. That they had needed to ship me to some Cleveland Clinic in Vegas, the place they weren’t even going to assist me. They simply needed to take notes. And it simply felt like, am I even an individual? Is that this actual life?
Hardy acquired no assist from the Affiliation of Boxing Commissions, leaving her little choice for medical therapy. Thankfully, she was capable of get assist by means of NYU Langone, one of many nation’s premier tutorial medical facilities.
“When I got hurt, I wasn’t getting any help from the boxing commission,” Hardy mentioned. “As a result of I didn’t have medical insurance, I didn’t get the MRI. I wasn’t conscious that every one I wanted to do was pay $1,200 and I might have gotten it. NYU Langone saved my life. They gave me an MRI, they gave me a therapist, they gave me a daily physician, they gave me an OB-GYN.
“They’re gonna help me file for disability. I can’t work. I can’t concentrate. I have to smoke [weed] just to kind of relax my face. I have no peripheral vision. I have serious PTSD. And having no peripheral vision, if you can imagine, it’s my brain, not my eyes. So my brain didn’t understand that I couldn’t see anymore.”
Hardy revealed that she was ultimately labeled as disabled, noting that she will’t be outdoors for various hours every day earlier than it impacts her imaginative and prescient — an affliction that makes it very troublesome for her to proceed coaching the subsequent technology of expertise at Gleason’s Gymnasium in Brooklyn the place she initially minimize her enamel.
“Physically, the results of the brain injury, I have an official letter of disability from multiple doctors,” she mentioned. “As a result of between the PTSD, I can’t even start to let you know the bodily stuff—I’m in unhealthy form. However I’ll say I’m in a protected place. So I’m feeling okay. I’m on the mend. I’ve about 4 outdoors hours a day earlier than my eyes damage.
“The only time I go outside is to teach my girls. I come to Gleason’s. It’s like a mental health check… it’s hard for me to hold pads, but all of my girls have kind of huddled around to make sure mom can get through four hours of work.”
Heather Hardy Wouldn’t change a rattling factor
Requested what she believes the game of boxing might do to stop extra fighters from ending up in her place, Heather Hardy had a tough time developing with a solution.
The one factor she is aware of for certain is that no person ought to must undergo the ache and struggling that she has and continues to expertise every day.
“I don’t know what I deserve,” Hardy admitted. “A lot of people, you know, you don’t get your flowers until you’re dead. I’m fine with that. My daughter will be at the service one day. I know what I did. I don’t know what the sport of boxing could have done different, but I know that the First Lady of Brooklyn boxing, the First Lady of DiBella Entertainment, never should have spent 2024 the way I did.”
As for whether or not or not she would do it over again, Hardy didn’t hesitate to reply that query.
“Everybody asked me, ‘Would you do it again?’ I would not do a single thing different,” Hardy mentioned. “As a result of no person ever did it earlier than. So who the f*ck is gonna inform me I did it improper, or I ought to have did it one other method? No person did the sh*t I did. They mentioned, ‘No Heather, you can’t do it.’ I mentioned, ‘Got it. I can’t do it? Let me present you the way I can.’
“I won a world f*cking title on HBO. What? I’m a little beach rat. If I can do that, I can f*cking do anything.”
