Since the UFC pushes Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) into the mainstream, an age old question remains: Is MMA safer then boxing? The major premise behind the debate has always been that unlike boxing, in MMA, there are more routes to success than striking your opponent. Highlighting the obvious, you will find less painful paths to victory, therefore making some losses in MMA less damaging on a fighter’s body and brain. 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 chances are lessened that they may become punch drunk. But, proponents of boxing are always quick to point out the bigger gloves employed in MMA and the fact that the rules allowing for leg elbows and strikes. Therefore”it’s time” to have an in-depth look to either side of this debate. Before getting into the thick of the argument, I want to highlight one of the important reasons I chose to write this article. Shawn O’Sullivan, a retired boxer who I’ve met many times, lives in my hometown. 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 over. A brief documentary on his story can be found below.Many would consider 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 consider his gold medal bout against Frank Tate very controversial as it seemed like the fix was in. Despite scoring two standing 8 counts in around two the judges given that round to Tate. Upon going pro, he found himself fast retired in 1988 with unsuccessful comebacks in both 1991 and 1997. Shawn’s overall record of 23-5-0, together with 16 knockouts handed him by without accomplishing his dreams of competing in a world title bout. After four fights in 1997, a neurologist refused to renew the permit he needed to continue boxing due to brain damage he saw during a CAT scan. Today, O’Sullivan is residing with the difficulties of brain damage, but he doesn’t repent his career in boxing. During my many discussions with O’Sullivan, he almost always slurred his speech also had problems recalling parts of his lifetime. Regrettably, his ability to talk about his story is all he has to show for his famous career. However, that’s hindered as a result of the culmination of blows to the head he endured during his boxing career. O’Sullivan suffers from boxer’s dementia, commonly called being”punch drunk” brought about partially as a consequence of the fighting style and gruelling sparring sessions in the gym. If you’d like to find out what I mean, take a few minutes and see his bout against Armando Martinez. What remains untold to many, and something that highlights the relevance of the article is that O’Sullivan was pushed into boxing with his first coach: his dad. Rumors are his dad was letting his son spar against heavyweights and even bigger men as part of the everyday reality test for O’Sullivan. As parents, one may feel uncomfortable recommending your child partake in any battle sport from the fear of their long-term consequences. Therefore signing up your child to either boxing or MMA training could become a question of which can be safer? Is there a chance you could help select the lesser of 2 so-called evils. Until recently the whole debate behind MMA is safer then Boxing was entirely 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 more than a decade’s worth of medical exams from approximately 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 per cent of boxers. But, fighters were likely to eliminate consciousness in a bout: seven percent versus four percent 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 showed an MMA fighter suffered a traumatic brain injury at nearly a third of specialist spells. It’s not my aim to cast doubt onto the protection of a game, however both boxing and MMA have had instances of deaths which are well documented. Recently a MMA fighter died because of complications reducing weight. John McCain, who once labeled the game 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 because no one have happened on its main point. A fighter’s death within 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 just 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 constant hype derives. UFC President Dana White declared MMA the”safest sport in the world, fact.” The concept that MMA is the safest sport in the entire world is mad. Tennis, golf, track and field, swimming… Are all”safer” sports because they lack head trauma all together and present little risk of death. Touting up security should come with a duty to completely study the effects of your sport. The construction on what will be called the UFC Athlete Health and Performance Center begins this shortly and will take 15 months to complete. Alongside medical insurance for training injuries, this is MMA’s second most significant step towards taking on more of a leading role in sport security. With that said, Dana’s end game is that Scientific study will finally brand MMA as a”safer” choice for battle sport athletes compared to boxing. But, it would just further the game’s reverse relationship. As MMA increases in popularity, boxing’s visibility at the national understanding continues to fall and it is simple to finger stage. It also can’t be stressed enough that the very first generation of fighters are only getting out of this game within the last couple of years. Science has an incredibly small sample dimension to look at in terms of aging MMA fighters right now, 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 older to get a true sense of the impact of the sport on them since they age. And by that I mean fighters that have had to compete with other high level athletes, not fighters who had been the best of a game 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 effects of brain injury primarily due to their runs of dominance and their capacity to avoid substantial damage. Johnson recently stated on the Joe Rogan Experience that”There’s not enough money in the entire world for me to risk brain damage” Johnson, like many other educated fighters, understands that carrying too much damage in his career will harm his longevity both inside and outside the sport, and that’s why he is so conscious of his security in the Octagon. Maybe that is the reason he’s never lost consciousness in the Octagon. Whatever the case, it is tough to use findings of yesteryear to find out the safety of the sport now. So much always changes inside the sport of MMA that trying to compare between eras is basically the exact same in trying to compare completely different sports. Perhaps then a better approach isn’t to examine the game’s past, and rather on its present and foreseeable future. The debate about which game is safer because of the glove size is moot. The amount of punishment a fighter takes over their livelihood is individualistic and highly determined by a fighter’s style. The most important selling point as to why MMA is more powerful than boxing is truly the glove dimensions. The boxing glove has been made to protect the hands, not the individual being punched. However MMA professionals assert that they use the bare minimum in hand defense. Any argument surrounding how a hand will break before the mind is not the most appealing approach to advocate for a safer sport. The same holds for the standing eight count. Arguing that permitting a concussed fighter to keep in a fight after being pumped just furthers brain injury. In MMA we see that a lot follow up punches following a fighter is rendered unconscious — maybe equally damaging to permitting a boxer to continue after receiving devastating blows. There are so many variables in determining the devastation of a landed punch–from technique to timing, to whether or not the receiver saw the punch coming–that it would be almost impossible to determine at a live game that glove size would have caused the most damage. What’s more, there are quite a few different elements and rules that deciding on which sport is safer. The normal period of a Boxing match is generally longer then that of an MMA fight. There are many factors that are individualistic to the fighter. I’d love to announce each sport equally as harmful, but until further research is completed, one can’t make such a statement with much assurance. The inherent risks in the sports are intrinsically linked. The ability of a fighter to achieve longevity in the sport is much more dependant on the abilities of the fighter themselves their respective sports parameters independently. Generalizing that is safer without the scientific proof to support such a claim remains a matter of opinion.
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