Josiah Harrell releases statement after rare brain disease discovery nixed UFC debut

Josiah Harrell is remaining positive in the aftermath of a difficult medical discovery.

Friday, one day prior to his scheduled promotional debut at UFC 290, Harrell (7-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC) was removed from his bout vs. Jack Della Maddalena when pre-fight medical testing showed he has a rare, previously undetected brain disease.

Harrell, 24, was diagnosed with moymoya, a disease that can cause blood clots in the back of the brain. His manager, Maurice Blanco of First Round Management, told MMA Junkie the pre-fight MRI was a “blessing in disguise” and might have saved his client’s life. Harrell signed with the UFC less than one week prior to his removal from the card. The MRI in his pre-fight medical evaluation was the first he ever had.

Harrell addressed his withdrawal for the first time Saturday in an Instagram post shared during Saturday’s card. Harrell gave his perspective on what happened and voiced optimism in an eventual return.

“We will be back. Small [bump] in the road. We did everything on our side Got all of our medicals redone this week

“1. Physical 2. Blood 3. MRI 4. Eyes

“Check out on all of them except something came up in the MRI scan that they wanted me to make sure in was nothing serious turns out I have a brain disease that is treatable and will back up and running asap.
Sorry to everyone I know you ether wanted to see me get my head beat in or wanting to see me with my hand raised I have very little information on what’s going on but I do know I’ll be a lab Rat for a while which is fitting

“Even though we had a 6 day notice, even though we had media obligations, paperwork, medical shit we still did everything on our side. Made weight and it was still after making weight were I was woken up and rushed to get a more medical shit figured out once we figure that out we didn’t get the news till about 2/3pm. No complaints tell me what I have to do and it will get done.

“A wild week a wild life I will get better I’ll keep y’all updated on the process thank you for all your prayers and love we will heal up quickly.

“Love you.”

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A post shared by Josiah Harrell (@josiahharrellmma)

Harrell is expected to undergo brain surgery, though the timetable for the procedure is unclear.

As rare as moyamoya disease is, there is a near-identical instance of another fighter who was removed from his UFC debut upon its discovery. In 2019, Vince Murdock was flagged for moyamoya. He underwent brain surgery and returned to competition in 2020.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 290.