What is multiple sclerosis, the disease UFC fighter Mark Madsen's wife suffers from?

UFC lightweight Mark Madsen will be going up against Clay Guida in the co-main event of Saturday's UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs. Gastelum card.

It has been almost two years since Mark Madsen stepped inside the octagon and the reason behind that is his wife Maria O. Madsen's multiple sclerosis diagnosis.

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What is multiple sclerosis?

Multiple sclerosis, shortened to MS, is a long-term, auto-immune chronic disease that affects the central nervous system of the human body and disrupts the connection established by the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves.

An auto-immune condition emerges when the body's immune system mistakenly attacks a necessary component, therefore leading to complications. In the case of multiple sclerosis, the immune system of the body attacks myelin - the protective coating around nerve fibers in the central nervous system - and causes inflammation and often irrepairable damage.

With the insulation of myelin damaged, the sending and receiving of neural messages within the central nervous system gets heavily disrupted and eventually stops completely.

The latitude at which a person lives is their strongest environmental risk factor for multiple sclerosis. Sabel et al. show that risk is established at or near birth, with significant implications for the design of prevention studies. https://t.co/gbJ260eM2T pic.twitter.com/9JZ5jMi0lM

— Brain (@Brain1878) August 20, 2021

Mark Madsen: "We won't let a disease determine anything in our life"

During Wednesday's media scrum ahead of UFC Vegas 34, Mark Madsen listed the struggles his family has been going through for the past year and how they have come out of it stronger.

Madsen revealed that his wife's diagnosis led to him asking for an extended leave from the UFC and a contract extension, and the promotion obliged.

"I broke my jaw early in the second round. I had to push through the fight. Went back home, got surgery on it. That surgery got infected. I needed a second surgery. When I thought I was ready to go again, I tested positive for COVID. When I was over that, we got the very unfortunate news that my wife was diagnosed with MS disease, which actually led me to call the UFC and ask for a leave," said Mark Madsen [h/t MMA Junkie]

An emotional Mark Madsen added that this fight against UFC veteran Clay Guida will not only be his comeback to MMA, but with it he aims to prove to himself and his wife that their lives would not be determined by the multiple sclerosis diagnosis, and that they would still be able to achieve their dreams despite the existence of a chronic disease.

"There’s been absolutely no conversation of not returning to MMA. This fight, this opportunity is about proving to myself – more importantly, proving to my wife – that we won’t let a disease determine anything in our life... One of her big fears with this diagnosis was that that would actually lead to me not being able to fight anymore, that it would mean that we would not have the opportunities that we had. So, this is actually about, you know, proving that if we believe, if we dream, even though there’s disease, we can still overcome and come after it. This is about proving for my wife that anything is still possible," Mark Madsen said.

Tonight we've got Mark Madsen, an Olympic silver medalist in wrestling whose wife currently suffers from multiple sclerosis vs Clay Guida, a near 20-year veteran who showed up to weigh-ins with an American flag tied to a fishing pole. Who, pray tell, are we supposed to root for? pic.twitter.com/ZjQegald42

— RJ Clifford (@RJcliffordMMA) August 21, 2021