(by Bob Hohler, Boston Globe) – Jordan Parsons, the MMA fighter killed in a hit-and-run accident in Delray Beach, Florida last May, has been posthumously diagnosed with CTE, according to the Boston Globe.

It is the first time the disease, which has been found in late former NFL players, has been diagnosed in a mixed martial artist, the Globe reported.

The Globe learned of the diagnosis from forensic pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu, who first discovered the disease in a former football player in 2002 and was the subject of the 2015 film “Concussion.”

Parsons, 25, died May 4 after he was struck by an SUV as he was crossing a major highway in Delray Beach during the early hours of May 1. Omalu said it was “impossible” for Parsons’ CTE to have been caused by the accident.

CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is a progressive degenerative disease of the brain found in athletes with a history of repetitive brain trauma, including concussions.

Omalu also announced the discovery of CTE in professional wrestler Jon Rechner… as well as signs of early stages of the disease in Rechner’s tag team partner, Brian Knighton…. Both died this year at age 44. …

The diagnoses come as World Wrestling Entertainment [WWE], the industry’s largest promoter, defends itself against lawsuits alleging the company placed its business interests above the health and safety of its performers.

WWE spokesman Brian Flinn said by e-mail that the company would decline to comment until it has reviewed the research on the diagnoses. He suggested that Konstantine Kyros, a lawyer who represents more than 60 professional wrestlers, was “pushing’’ the CTE story to counter negative publicity about the WWE’s court motions to sanction him for improper conduct — an allegation Kyros denied.

The WWE lawsuits are similar to complaints brought by former players against the National Football League after Dr. Omalu’s landmark diagnosis in 2003 of CTE in the late Pittsburgh Steeler Mike Webster’s brain. The football cases led the NFL to reach a $1 billion settlement with the players.

The National Hockey League faces a similar legal challenge, and the Parsons case signals the possibility of court action against the MMA industry by participants of the combat sport. The industry’s leader, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, was sold to a Hollywood conglomerate in July for $4 billion.

“These findings confirm that the danger of exposure to CTE is not limited to just football, hockey, and wrestling,’’ Omalu said in an interview. “Mixed martial arts is also a dangerous sport, and it’s time for everyone to embrace the truth.’’ …

CTE can only be diagnosed through postmortem brain autopsies. The autopsies on Parsons, Rechner, and Knighton were conducted by Dr. Julia K. Kofler, a neuropathologist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Presbyterian. The university is affiliated with Dr. Omalu’s charitable foundation, which he created in 2015 before the release of the movie “Concussion,’’ a dramatization of the NFL’s resistance to his CTE research.

Omalu said he reviewed Kofler’s studies and endorsed her findings.

“As a scientist, a physician, and a person of faith, I beg everybody involved with these sports to come together and identify the problems and find solutions,’’ Omalu said.

Parsons, a former high school wrestler in Michigan, began competing in MMA events at age 17. He turned pro at 20 and soon captured the Championship Fighting Alliance’s featherweight title.

Then came medical trouble. After rolling undefeated through his first seven professional bouts, he lasted only 71 seconds in his eighth match, in 2012, before he was sent reeling to the mat by a knockout punch. A full year passed before Parsons fought again.

His mother, Anna Morsaw, sent a video of the knockout to Kyros, who procured Parsons’s brain for the autopsy. She also sent a video of Parsons’s final match, in 2015, in which he went wobbling to the canvas after a thunderous kick to his head.

Still, Parsons was a rising star, and he was training with an elite professional team, the Blackzilians, in Boca Raton, Fla., before his death. On May 1 in nearby Delray Beach, he was struck in a crosswalk by a Range Rover that seconds earlier had allegedly been traveling more than 100 miles per hour in a 45-mile-per-hour zone. He died three days later.  …

Parsons’s mother declined to comment publicly on the diagnosis, indicating she was too distraught about his death and the pending criminal prosecution of the driver who allegedly killed him.