Heather Hardy’s career likely over after ‘too much brain damage’

Heather Hardy is out of her BKFC 61 headlining bout with Christine Ferea, but that appears to be the least of her concerns.

Hardy on Monday shared a troubling health outlook in a grim Instagram post as the former boxing champion revealed “too much brain damage” from fighting has severely impacted her vision. Hardy had been set to make her BKFC debut and challenge Ferea for the promotion’s women’s flyweight championship this Saturday.

Hardy said she experienced blurred vision a few days after her title-fight loss to Amanda Serrano last August. At the time, Hardy figured she just needed time off to recover properly, six to eight months.

Hardy said financial woes pushed her to accept an offer from BKFC and after a month into training for Ferea, “everything got worse with my sight.”

“I was down to 123 pounds because I couldn’t eat, I wasn’t sleeping, I was so weak,” Hardy wrote on Instagram. “I hadn’t told anyone how bad it was, not my boyfriend, not my coaches. I thought I could make it through the 10-minute fight, but after a very light sparring session, I couldn’t see sh*t for two days. I didn’t eat or sleep Friday to Monday, and I knew I was too weak to do this sh*t. After finally seeing a doctor, he said I’ve had too many concussions.

“When you have a concussion, a piece of your brain dies and you never get it back. Imagine that? In 10 years, I’ve had too much brain damage. I can’t get anymore, or else I won’t be able to see. No running, no jogging, no jumping rope, and no getting hit in the head.”

Hardy didn’t outright announce that her combat sports career is over but indicated it was with these five words to conclude her post: “ya know what that means.”

Hardy, 42, made her professional boxing debut in August 2012 and remained unbeaten through her first 23 fights as she won WBC and WBO featherweight titles. While still at the height of her boxing career, Hardy tried her hand at mixed martial arts, going 2-2 in four fights with Bellator from 2017 to 2019.

Like boxing? Be sure to visit Boxing Junkie for all your coverage of the sweet science and follow @BoxingJunkie2 on Twitter.