“Disabled” former FDNY fireman cheating the system?
Giuffrida collects $75,000 in disability pension while competing in MMA
I ran across a story from The New York Post and thought I’d share it with you guys. The article states that a former city firefighter is now practicing and competing in mixed martial arts events. Practicing and competing is not the problem. The problem is the fact he has been getting nearly $75,000 a year, tax-free, in disability pension for the last seven years that he was given because of alleged lung problems.
Forty-two year old John Giuffrida has been training and competing in Muay Thai kickboxing and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for the last two years despite a career-ending diagnoses of lung disease and post-traumatic stress disorder, and some people are upset and believe he’s cheating the system.
One anonymous person close to Giuffrida said, “He’s scamming the city and slapping all these widows and widowers in the face.” The source went on to add that he (Giuffrida) got divorced and took up hiking and scuba diving in his retirement along with martial arts.
Giuffrida claims that he was forced to retire by a Fire Department medical board and states, “I have nothing to hide. The conditions that precluded me from being a firefighter in no way preclude me living an active life in order to preserve my health.”[pullquote]Giuffrida claims that he was forced to retire by a Fire Department medical board and states, “I have nothing to hide.”[/pullquote]
While I’ve never been a firefighter, and don’t plan on it, I do know about training for MMA activities. And let me tell you, if you are not in top physical condition, you can not participate to the extent of Mr. Giuffrida. You just can’t. Your lungs have to be in tip-tip shape, so if he was forced into retirement because of lung issues I have to question whether or not he has these problems.
Giuffrida has participated in, and won, a couple of N.A.G.A (North American Grappling Association) tournaments and fought for a local MMA circuit, winning their championship. Just this year he took home bronze at the N.A.G.A. World Championships in April. Please. Your lungs have to be cured, or were never that “injured.”
5 Comments
Holy stupid.
I have several thoughts on this subject. I will be going into it in more depth in tomorrow’s NTSF column, but I just wanted to drop a quick line here. Having never been a firefighter myself, but having seen my father do it in a volunteer capacity for 16 years, a few differences between MMA and Giuffrida’s former profession pop to mind.
First, I’ve never trained for MMA. If anything, I was raised more on the “sweet science” of boxing in the sport’s last golden era for heavyweights and never did get into mixed martial arts enough as they ascended right past boxing to prominence in the fight game. But the variance between the bursts of energy required for MMA versus the sustained endurance effort that is firefighting quickly came to mind as I read this. While his lungs may be able to adequately handle the heavy exertion in measured doses that is diving into the octagon, they may not be able to work at maximum capacity — not to mention tolerate the inevitable smoke inhalation that is residual and inevitable even when wearing a breathing apparatus — for as long a period as firefighting requires.
Second… wait, I shouldn’t go any further. Read my NTSF column tomorrow for more thoughts. For now, great job bringing this to everyone’s attention, Rob!
as a firefighter all i can say is this
MMA is an individual sport
firefighting is a team sport that losing is death
if you cant besure of a teamates physical state(one bad physical) or mental heath they have to go to the sidelines
it maybe that he did have a lung problem retired it went away or got better but it is hard to unretire a person especially in a highly unionized profession
I'm more inline with what Rob is saying. Like ROb states, you can't imagine the endurance and cardio discipline required to participate in MMA. You have to practice to be any good and this guy is winning, albeit small promotions, championships. You can be almost null on your cardio if you are stringing together quick finishes, however, if you train anywhere near properly then you would have to be a beast to even be an MMA fighter. Good find Rob.
This guy should be required to pay back every penny he got from NYC! He is cheating the system! There are many others just like him in the NYFD. They play along with the routine of going to the medical office of the fire dept. then get out on 3/4 pay. Why is this guy getting away with this?