LONGEVITY IN COMBAT SPORTS: MMA VERSUS BOXING

As the UFC pushes Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) to the mainstream, an age old question remains: Why Is MMA safer then boxing? The major premise behind the argument has always been that unlike boxing, in MMA, there are more avenues to victory than hitting your opponent. Highlighting the obvious, you will find less debilitating routes to success, thus creating some reductions in MMA less damaging on a fighter’s body and mind. The Unified Rules of MMA make it feasible for a MMA fighter to win a bout by judges’ decision or by maybe submitting their competitor. The resulting notion is that MMA athletes suffer fewer traumatic injuries and the chances are lessened they may become punch drunk. But, proponents of boxing are always quick to point out the smaller gloves implemented in MMA and also the fact the rules allowing for leg strikes and elbows. Therefore”it’s time” to take a comprehensive appearance to both sides of this debate. Before getting into the thick of the argument, I’d like to highlight one of the important reasons I chose to write this article. Shawn O’Sullivan, a retired boxer who I’ve met many occasions, lives in my mind. On paper, his life looks like a success story. However the actual truth is his boxing profession killed his odds of having a successful life after his career was finished. A brief documentary about his narrative are available below.Many would believe O’Sullivan’s career marginally illustrious as he had been the 1981 World Amateur Champion, 1981 Canadian Athlete of the Year and 1984 Olympic Silver medalist at light middleweight. Also many believe his gold medal bout against Frank Tate very controversial as it seemed like the fix has been in. Despite scoring two standing 8 counts in around two the judges given that round to Tate. Upon going pro, he found himself fast murdered in 1988 with failed comebacks in both 1991 and 1997. Shawn’s overall listing of 23-5-0, with 16 knockouts passed him without accomplishing his dreams of competing in a world title bout. After four fights in 1997, a neurologist refused to renew the permit he had to continue boxing because of brain damage he saw during a CAT scan. Today, O’Sullivan is residing with the issues of brain damage, however, he does not repent his career in boxing. Throughout my many discussions with O’Sullivan, he practically always slurred his speech and had difficulties remembering parts of his life. Regrettably, his ability to share his story is all he has to show for his famous career. But, that is hindered because of the culmination of blows to the head that he endured during his boxing career. O’Sullivan suffers from fighter’s dementia, commonly called being”punch drunk” caused partly as a consequence of the fighting style and gruelling sparring sessions at the gym. If you want to find out exactly what I mean, take a few minutes and watch his bout against Armando Martinez. What remains untold to most, and something which highlights the relevance of this guide is that O’Sullivan was pushed into boxing with his first trainer: his father. Rumors are his dad was letting his son spar against heavyweights and much bigger guys as part of the everyday reality check for O’Sullivan. As parents, an individual may feel uncomfortable advocating that your kid partake in any combat sport out of the fear of the long term consequences. So signing up your child to boxing or MMA training can become a question of which is safer? Is there a possibility that you could help choose the lesser of two so-called evils. Until recently the whole debate behind MMA is safer then Boxing was entirely theoretical. There continues to be little scientific facts and findings to support the claim. Most recently the University of Alberta’s Dr. Shelby Karpman led a review of more than a decade’s worth of medical exams from roughly 1,700 fighters in Edmonton, Canada. According to the study, Fifty-nine percent of MMA athletes sustained some kind of harm, compared to 50 percent of fighters. But, fighters were likely to eliminate consciousness during a bout: seven per cent versus four percent for MMA fighters. Irrespective of the facts to as which sport is safer, ” The Canadian Medical Association has called for a ban on both MMA and boxing. By highlighting a 2014 University of Toronto study showed an MMA fighter suffered a traumatic brain injury in nearly a third of professional bouts. It’s not my intention to cast doubt on the protection of a game, however both boxing and MMA have had instances of deaths which are well recorded. Recently a MMA fighter died due to complications reducing weight. John McCain, who once labeled the sport of MMA”human cockfighting,” sat ringside in the 1995 boxing death of Jimmy Garcia. However, very few serious life threatening accidents in MMA come into mind as no one have happened on its primary stage. A fighter’s passing inside the Octagon hasn’t happened and hopefully it never will. But it’s something that must be in the back of everybody’s mind once we see fighters getting knocked out lifelessly. Rendering an opponent not only defenceless but unconscious remains to be the name of the fight game if it’s MMA or Boxing. That’s where a fighter’s fanfare, bonus cash and constant hype derives. UFC President Dana White announced MMA the”safest game in the world, fact.” The concept that MMA is the safest sport in the world is crazy. Tennis, golf, track and field, swimming… Are all”safer” sports in that they lack head injury all together and present little risk of passing. Touting up security should include a responsibility to fully study the ramifications of your game. The construction on what’s going to be called the UFC Athlete Health and Performance Center starts this shortly and will take 15 months to finish. Alongside medical insurance for training injuries, this can be MMA’s next most important step towards taking on more of a top role in sport safety. That said, Dana’s end game is that Scientific research will finally develop MMA as a”safer” alternative for fight sport athletes when compared with boxing. But, it might just further the sport’s reverse relationship. Since MMA increases in popularity, boxing’s visibility at the national consciousness continues to fall and it is easy to finger point. It also can’t be stressed enough that the first generation of fighters are just getting out of the sport over the past few years. Science has a remarkably small sample size to look at in terms of aging MMA fighters at this time, although UFC originals such as Gary Goodridge are already feeling the consequences. We probably still need a few more”generations” of fighters to retire and grow old to get a true sense of the effects of the sport on them as they age. And by that I mean fighters that have had to compete with other high level athletes, not fighters who were the very best of a game that was very much in the developmental phases. Fighters like George St Pierre, Demetrious Johnson and Ronda Rousey are not likely to deal with any longstanding consequences of brain trauma primarily due to their runs of desire and their ability to prevent substantial harm. Johnson recently stated on the Joe Rogan Experience that”There is not enough money in the world for me to risk brain damage.” Johnson, like many other fighters that are educated, understands that carrying too much harm in his profession will hurt his longevity both inside and outside the game, and that’s why he is so conscious of his security in the Octagon. Perhaps that is the main reason why he’s never lost consciousness in the Octagon. Whatever the case, it is tough to utilize findings of yesteryear to determine the security of the sport today. So much constantly changes inside the sport of MMA that trying to compare between eras is essentially the same in trying to compare completely different sports. Maybe then a better approach isn’t to look at the sport’s past, and instead on its present as time goes on. The debate as to which game is safer because of the glove size is moot. The quantity of punishment a fighter takes over their career is individualistic and highly determined by a fighter’s style. The main selling point as to why MMA is more powerful than boxing is actually the glove size. The boxing glove was made to protect the hands, not the person being punched. However MMA practitioners argue that they utilize the bare minimum in hand defense. Any argument surrounding the fact that a hand will break until the mind isn’t exactly the most appealing approach to advocate for a safer sport. The same goes for the standing eight count. Arguing that allowing a concussed fighter to continue at a struggle after being knocked down just furthers brain injury. In MMA we witness a whole lot follow up punches following a fighter is rendered unconscious — maybe equally damaging to allowing a boxer to continue after getting devastating blows. There are so many factors in determining the devastation of a landed punch–from technique to timing, to whether or not the recipient saw the punch coming–that it would be virtually impossible to determine in a live match which glove size would have caused the maximum damage. Furthermore, there are a number of other rules and elements that determining which game is safer. The average duration of a Boxing game is generally longer then that of an MMA fight. There are so many factors that are individualistic to the fighter. I’d love to announce each game equally as harmful, but until further research is completed, an individual can not make this kind of statement with much confidence. The inherent dangers in the sports are intrinsically connected. The capability of a fighter to achieve longevity in the game is more dependant on the skills of this fighter themselves their respective sports parameters independently. Generalizing that is safer with no scientific proof to support such a claim remains to be a matter of opinion.
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