MMA hasn't been around long enough to see the long term damage of taking punches & kicks to the head. I'm pretty sure you will be seeing "punch drunk" MMA fighters in the future, and it's only a matter of time before someone gets killed by a blow to the temple in the octagon. A good example was Josh Barnett last night. He was knocked out by a knee, fell to his knees and was propped up by the other guy's knee, who proceeded to slam him in the temple with three elbows, any one of which could have been fatal, all because the referee didn't seem to notice that he was already knocked out by the knee, which the announcers didn't notice either, even after watching it a second time. I like to see a good fight, but I don't think it should be life or death. After all, it's supposed to be a "sport". Where's the sportsmanship in hitting an unconscious opponent?
MMA is a lot different to boxing in terms of damage taken to the head. For so many reasons. The fact that you can hit a downed fighter - the fact the fight goes to the ground and the fight can be finished there and then, rather than being potentially more damaging to the fighter, is the reason they don't take the sustained punishment to the head that boxers do when repeatedly hit for twelve rounds with more padded gloves on, with standing 8 counts, and time to recover between knockdowns. In other words the most brutal aspect of MMA, the part you want changed, is the very thing which keeps them from that kind of sustained damage.
Yes you'll still see punch drunk MMA fighters who stay in the sport far too long and are involved in too many wars. But by and large the retired MMA fighters aren't showing the same effects as the majority of retired boxers.
Even if he could fight again I don't see how hey could let him. He will have a metal rod inside his bone. It would be like a corked bat or metal or plaster inside a boxing glove. I don't see that getting approval.
He has it inside his bone. Not on the outside using screws on either side of the break. It will never come out. They would have to shatter the bone again to get it out, would make no sense. I saw today that he should be walking without crutches in 30 days.