LONGEVITY IN COMBAT SPORTS: MMA VERSUS BOXING
As the UFC pushes Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) into 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 striking your opponent. Highlighting the apparent, you will find less debilitating routes to success, thus creating some losses in MMA less detrimental 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 possibly submitting their competitor. The resulting idea is that MMA athletes suffer fewer traumatic injuries and the odds are lessened that they may become punch drunk. However, proponents of boxing are always quick to point out the smaller gloves implemented in MMA and the fact that the rules allowing for leg elbows and strikes. Therefore”it’s time” to take a comprehensive appearance to both sides of this debate. Prior to getting into the thick of the argument, I want to highlight one of the key reasons I chose to write this article. Shawn O’Sullivan, a retired fighter that I’ve met many times, resides in my hometown. On paper, his life looks like a success story. However the actual truth is his boxing profession killed his chances of having a successful life after his career was finished. A brief documentary on his story can be found below.Many would believe O’Sullivan’s career marginally illustrious because he was 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 was in. Despite scoring two standing 8 counts at round two the judges awarded that around to Tate. Upon going pro, he found himself fast retired in 1988 with failed comebacks in both 1991 and 1997. Shawn’s overall record of 23-5-0, together with 16 knockouts passed him by without reaching his dreams of competing in a world title bout. After four more fights in 1997, a neurologist refused to renew the license he needed to continue boxing due to brain injury that he saw during a CAT scan. Now, O’Sullivan is living with the difficulties of brain damage, but he doesn’t repent his career in boxing. During my many conversations with O’Sullivan, he practically always slurred his speech also had problems recalling parts of his lifetime. Sadly, his ability to share his story is all he has to show for his illustrious career. However, that is hindered because of the culmination of blows to the head that he suffered during his boxing career. O’Sullivan suffers from fighter’s dementia, commonly called being”punch drunk” caused partially as a consequence of the fighting style and gruelling sparring sessions at the gym. If you’d like to find out exactly what I mean, take a few minutes and watch his bout against Armando Martinez. What remains untold to many, and something which highlights the significance of this article is that O’Sullivan was pushed into boxing by his first coach: his dad. Rumors are his dad was allowing his son spar against heavyweights and even larger men as part of the daily reality check for O’Sullivan. As parents, an individual may feel uncomfortable recommending your child partake in any combat sport out of the fear of the long term consequences. Therefore signing up your child to boxing or MMA training can become a matter of which is safer? Is there a chance you could help choose the lesser of 2 so-called evils. Until recently the whole debate behind MMA is safer then Boxing was completely theoretical. There continues to be small scientific facts and findings to support the claim. Most recently the University of Alberta’s Dr. Shelby Karpman headed a review of over a decade’s worth of medical exams from roughly 1,700 fighters in Edmonton, Canada. According to the study, Fifty-nine per cent of MMA athletes sustained some kind of injury, compared to 50 percent of fighters. But, fighters were likely to eliminate consciousness during a bout: seven per cent versus four per cent for MMA fighters. Regardless of the facts to as which game is safer, The Canadian Medical Association has called for a ban on both MMA and boxing. By highlighting a 2014 University of Toronto study revealed an MMA fighter suffered a traumatic brain injury at nearly a third of professional bouts. It’s not my intention to cast doubt on the safety of a sport, nevertheless both boxing and MMA have had cases of fatalities which are well recorded. Recently a MMA fighter died because of 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 severe life threatening injuries in MMA come to mind as none have happened on its primary point. A fighter’s death within the Octagon hasn’t occurred and it never will. But it’s something which must be in the back of everybody’s mind when we see fighters getting knocked out lifelessly. Rendering an opponent not only defenceless but unconscious remains to be the title of the fight game whether it’s MMA or Boxing. That is where a fighter’s fanfare, bonus cash and continuous hype derives. UFC President Dana White declared MMA that the”safest sport in the world, fact.” The idea 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 trauma all together and present little risk of passing. Touting up safety should come with a duty to fully study the effects of your game. The construction on what’s going to be known as the UFC Athlete Health and Performance Center starts this soon and will take 15 weeks to finish. Next to medical insurance for training accidents, this can be MMA’s second most important step towards taking on more of a top role in sport safety. With that said, Dana’s end game is that Scientific study will finally brand MMA as a”safer” alternative for battle sport athletes compared to boxing. But, it might just further the sport’s inverse relationship. Since MMA increases in popularity, boxing’s visibility in the national consciousness continues to fall and it’s simple to finger stage. It also can’t be stressed enough the first generation of fighters are only getting out of the game within the past few decades. Science has an incredibly small sample size to check at with respect to aging MMA fighters right now, though UFC originals such as Gary Goodridge are already feeling the effects. We probably still require a couple more”generations” of fighters to retire and grow older to get an actual sense of the impact of the game on them since they age. And by that I mean fighters who have had to compete with other high level athletes, not boxers that were the very best of a sport that was still very much in the developmental phases. Fighters like George St Pierre, Demetrious Johnson and Ronda Rousey are not likely to face any longstanding consequences of brain injury primarily because of their runs of desire as well as their ability to avoid significant harm. Johnson recently said on the Joe Rogan Expertise that”There’s not enough money in the entire world for me to risk brain damage.” Johnson, like many other educated fighters, knows that taking too much harm in his career will harm his longevity both indoors and outside the sport, and that is why he is so conscious of his safety in the Octagon. Maybe that’s the main reason why he’s never lost consciousness in the Octagon. Whatever the case, it is difficult to utilize findings of yesteryear to determine the security of the sport today. So much constantly changes within the sport of MMA that trying to compare between eras is basically the exact same in attempting to compare very different sports. Maybe then a better approach isn’t to look at the sport’s past, and rather on its present as time goes on. The argument as to which sport is safer because of the glove size is moot. The amount 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 safer than boxing is actually the glove size. The boxing glove has been made to protect the hands, not the individual being punched. However MMA practitioners argue that they utilize the bare minimum in hand protection. Any debate surrounding the fact that a hand will break until the head isn’t exactly the most appealing approach to advocate for a safer game. The same goes for the standing eight count. Arguing that allowing a concussed fighter to keep in a fight after being pumped just furthers brain trauma. In MMA we see a whole lot follow up punches following a fighter is rendered unconscious — possibly equally damaging to allowing a fighter to continue after getting devastating blows. There are so many factors in determining the devastation of a landed punch–out of technique to timing, to whether or not the recipient saw the punch coming–that it would be virtually impossible to determine at a live match which glove size would have caused the most damage. Furthermore, there are a number of different rules and elements that determining which sport is safer. The average duration of a Boxing match is generally longer then that of an MMA fight. There are so many variables that are individualistic to the fighter. I’d like to declare each game equally as dangerous, but until further research is done, an individual can not create this kind of statement with much confidence. The inherent dangers in both sports are intrinsically connected. The ability of a fighter to achieve longevity in the game is more dependant on the abilities of this fighter themselves then their various sports parameters alone. Generalizing that is safer without the scientific proof to support such a claim remains a matter of opinion.
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