Just heard about this myself. Apparently he was awake for three days non-stop!!! Uh, that's not normal is it? That seems to point to either 1.) drug use or 2.) a total mental meltdown. Given that his general behavior (as described in reports) fits either explanation, I don't think its possible to narrow down whether its drugs or just regular mental illness. Let's hope he get's help. Unfortunately mental illness looms large over combat sports. We've seen guys as far back as Ad Wolgast and Terry McGovern suffer from depression, manic behavior, and psychosis. And it was only a week or two ago that Jeremy Stevens admitted he has suicidal thoughts. Matt Brown had a similar admission as did Ronda Rousey (famously). Tony reminds me a lot of Evan Tanner (rip). Wild, very eccentric, and sometimes basically incoherent, spewing a lot of word salad
https://www.mmafighting.com/platfor...&utm_source=twitter&__twitter_impression=true Yeeeesh, just read this. Apparently he's been drinking heavily. I'm sure getting elbowed and kicked in the head hasn't helped. Scary stuff.
Hope he comes out OK. He came back quick from the knee injury, wonder if he tweaked it again and put him on the sidelines again and put him into a break down. Would of helped if i read the article, he is in a bad way. he really needs to get help and not be wandering around on his own
I'm not that surprised tbh, while I'm obv. no Dr. or expert from what I've seen and read including his tweets etc. he seems to have some anger issues and may have some kind of hyperactive ADHD type condition which he may need to have looked at if it hasn't been already,if he did take drugs or alcohol I'm sure it could worsen such a condition.
The article mentions that he had something resembling a psychotic break while celebrating his TUF victory back home in Michigan and wound up in a hospital for psychiatric evaluation. As you say, Tony has always been an odd character. I'm not sure if you saw his media day scrum back before his fight with Pettis. It was downright strange, even by Tony's standards, and now it fits neatly into the larger narrative of a man whose psyche was eroding. Now facts are trickling out that make it increasingly clear that he has a pattern of mental health issues that are more serious that being 'cringey' or 'weird' in some banal sense. I think your hypothesis of an extreme ADHD condition makes a lot of sense. Money, growing fame, the pressure of being a relatively new father, along with the hardship and loneliness of fighting can all make something like that worse, especially when couple with the fact that he was (according to his wife) abusely alcohol heavily.
A friend of mine ended up on a psychiatric ward, his attitude resembled someone high as a kite, drugs blatantly, but it was not the case, you could be forgiven for thinking otherwise though !