Some people might feel bad for Joisah Harrell. But 10 days removed from a life-changing diagnosis, Harrell considers himself nothing but lucky.
“If I took another path in however many lives I have, if I took a different path, they were finding this when I’m 40 and it’s already too late and I’ve seized up,” Harrell recently told MMA Junkie. “It’s very, very weird.”
On July 7 following UFC 290 weigh-ins, Harrell, through pre-fight medical testing, was diagnosed with a rare brain disease called moyamoya, which resulted in a canceled debut fight vs. Jack Della Maddalena.
It’s been a rollercoaster week-and-a-half for Harrell, but the craziness even stretches back further than that. That’s why circumstances some may perceive as terrible luck, Harrell views as hitting the lottery.
“If LFA doesn’t call me and I don’t go through the cage, I don’t get most of the eyes I had, because I know that went viral,” Harrell said. “Maybe the UFC had seen me before, but that moment going viral through the cage, that is probably where it all started where they go, ‘Well, it’s about his time.’ Even though I’m 6-0 or 7-0 or whatever with seven finishes, that puts it on. They started talking. For me to have to go through the cage perfectly because that cage was locked. They check it. It just happened to be a fluke, me going through the cage. If that doesn’t happen, which who knows, that’s one in a million again? Then, going onto this, Brady has to pull out because of injury.”
“… It’s insane to look back on life and go, ‘How else would they have found this?’ Let’s say I took a football career. OK, maybe I get an MRI, but do I need one? Let’s say I go back to school and stay and study. They’re not finding that sucker until I go to the hospital.”
Harrell, 24, had never had an MRI prior to his onboarding process with the UFC. He accepted the UFC 290 matchup on six days’ notice and went through a whirlwind of media responsibilities and onboarding processes. Required to do a second brain scan unexpectedly, Harrell started to realize something might be up.
“They told me I might need to get a new MRI or something, (because) something came up blurry,” Harrell said. “In my head, I’m like, ‘Hell no.’ I was in the MRI and they’re scanning me, and I didn’t even fart. I didn’t move an inch. I’m like, ‘There’s no way this scan was blurry.’ The first thing that came into my mind was that I have something wrong with my head. I went worst case scenario immediately, ‘I probably have cancer.'”
Cancer was not present, but the scans showed moyamoya, a tightening of the vessels on one side of his brain. Had he continued through intense training in pursuit of MMA fighting notoriety without treatment, the end result could’ve been fatal.
“I don’t have health insurance,” Harrell said. “There would’ve been no reason for me to go to the hospital. This is one of the only paths I could’ve taken where they find this this early. If I took another path in however many lives I have, if I took a different path, they were finding this when I’m 40 and it’s already too late and I’ve seized up. It’s very, very weird.”
When news of Harrell’s medical diagnosis went public, thousands of messages of well wishes flooded in. Fans, fighters, and media members tried to empathize and sympathize with Harrell. But pity is not his way. He’s leaned on positivity and humor instead.
“Everything is a joke to me,” Harrell said. “That’s how I deal with trauma, anyway. I was just cracking jokes like, ‘I knew there was something wrong with me.’ I was just doing whatever I can, like, ‘Is that it?’ As soon as I was done making the jokes, I was like, ‘It’s treatable. Cool.’ In my head, the little kid in me was like, ‘No, you want this now. You just spent all this time and cut weight. You want this now.’ Then I was thinking about it like, ‘OK, you’ve just got to be patient. Just be patient. The doctors are going to figure this out.”
Despite moyamoya’s rareness, Harrell isn’t the first fighter in UFC history to receive the diagnosis. In 2019, Vince Murdock had a near-identical issue. After surgery, Murdock returned to fighting. Harrell plans to connect with Murdock in the coming weeks as he awaits word from Stanford Medical as to when a surgery of his own can take place.
As level-headed as Harrell is in the face of major adversity, there is a side of this experience that turns down the dials of humor and positivity. The financial burden of such a procedure will likely be hefty, Harrell admitted.
“I hate asking for help, so I won’t do that,” Harrell said. “I don’t know. We’ll have to figure that out. If anything is going to cause me stress, it’s going to be that. We’ll figure it out. I always have, so there’s no need to think I’m not going to now. If the UFC helps out, God bless them. If I have to figure this out, then I will. We haven’t had anything together as far as a GoFundMe. … I probably should get some sort of fundraiser together. Otherwise, I’m going to be sh*tting bricks for a while.”
As of right now, Harrell is still on the UFC roster. USADA showed up to test his urine Friday, which Harrell found to be a good sign. Whether the UFC releases him or keeps him around, Harrell vows to make the walk to the cage eventually, as he looks at at least a 14-month delay for surgery and recovery.
His dreams and aspirations haven’t changed. Greatness is not usually achieved without adversity, and Harrell is fired up to make his story the most incredible and inspirational one possible.
“I may have to starting getting some sort of journal together and start writing things down,” Harrell said. “We’ve got to make a story out of this – especially when I’m at the top with the UFC belt around my waist, 155, maybe 170, or who knows, maybe they’ll bring in the cruiserweight class, 165, and I’ll have three belts around me.”
Check out the full interview with Harrell below:
