Retired boxing world champion and MMA fighter Heather Hardy filed a lawsuit this week against Everlast and several other individuals involved in her career.
In short she alleges that after a career in prize fighting and ascending to the very top she was left broke and broken. Hardy summarizes her injuries and current status as follows:
- Today, Heather lives with chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and frontal
lobe damage. She has daily seizures, convulsions, and muscle spasms. Her vision is impaired,
she cannot sleep, she cannot read maps, and she frequently cannot distinguish right from left.
She suffers from debilitating anxiety, for which she takes medication. She is 43. - Heather supports herself at a subsistence level by coaching other boxers—at least
for a couple of hours a day, before her brain damage symptoms become incapacitating—at the
very Brooklyn gym that was her own professional haven for many years. Yet, in perhaps the
cruelest development among many, and despite being a former world champion boxer, she
cannot afford the kind of private health insurance that would give her even a minimally
appropriate level of treatment. Instead, she relies on Medicaid for whatever minimal treatment it
provides for her physical, neurological, and psychological symptoms
The lawsuit makes various allegations against the named Defendants arguing that they legally contributed to the harm she now lives with. None of the allegations have been proven in court and the Defendants have not yet filed their replies.
There are wide ranging allegations made in the Compliant. One that should be of particular interest to all combat sports gear manufacturers are the allegations against Everlast. Hardy alleges that they failed to adequately warn her of the shortcomings of combat sports protective gear, particularly that gloves and headgear do not prevent concussion and CTE.
Hardy alleges as follows:
After Ms. Hardy was signed to Everlast, she was
contractually required to do the following: (1) exclusively use Everlast boxing gloves for all of
her bouts; and (2) exclusively use Everlast boxing gloves and headgear when sparring and
training. The Everlast logo is featured prominently on the boxing gloves and headgear that
Ms. Hardy used between September 2019 and February 2023. In an ironic confession, Everlast
signed its own name on the head it promised to protect, but instead left to be pulverized for its
own profit.
…
- The Everlast Defendants knew or should have known of the substantial dangers
involved in the reasonably foreseeable use of the boxing gloves, including the risk of long-term
brain injuries caused by successive concussions. - The Everlast Defendants failed to provide necessary and adequate safety and
instructional materials and warnings of the risk and means available to reduce and/or minimize
the risk of concussive brain injuries while boxing or participating in MMA fights. - The Everlast Defendants failed to warn fighters, including Ms. Hardy (who was
contractually bound to use only Everlast gear for the latter part of her career), of the risk of longterm brain injury from repeated concussions so that the fighters could make an informed decision
on whether they should return to the ring after sustaining repeated punches to the head
The ABC Athletes Voice Committee (full disclosure I sit on this committee) has advocated that combat sports gear should have blunt warnings on headgear and gloves. Perhaps this litigation will be the motivation other manufacturers need to change their practices.
Combat Sports Law 