Here’s some ammo to use the next time someone mentions how dangerious MMA contests are:
The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of injury in
professional MMA fighters. Data from all professional MMA events that took place between September 2001 and December 2004 in the state of Nevada were obtained from the Nevada Athletic Commission.
Medical and outcome data from events were analyzed based on a pair-matched case-control design.
The injury rate in MMA competitions is compatible with other combat sports involving striking. The lower knockout rates in MMA compared to boxing may help prevent brain injury in MMA events.
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Here’s some ammo to use the next time someone mentions how dangerious MMA contests are:
The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence of injury in
professional MMA fighters. Data from all professional MMA events that took place between September 2001 and December 2004 in the state of Nevada were obtained from the Nevada Athletic Commission.
Medical and outcome data from events were analyzed based on a pair-matched case-control design.
The injury rate in MMA competitions is compatible with other combat sports involving striking. The lower knockout rates in MMA compared to boxing may help prevent brain injury in MMA events.
I’ve never heard it mentioned that MMA is more dangerous than boxing, but I really think it depends on your skills. In MMA you can always tap before your get your leg broken, in boxing you have to take a huge ass punch, then not get up in order to lose.
To the extent there is greater joint damage in MMA sports than in boxing (I have joint damage from boxing, so I would not accept this premise as true), do remember that joint damage is a lot less serious condition than brain damage.
Thus, the thesis that MMA fighting is safer than boxing remains true.
[quote]Sxio wrote:
But that’s just regarding brain damage from striking. What about cumulative joint damage from submission techniques? There’s none of that in boxing. [/quote]
[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
To the extent there is greater joint damage in MMA sports than in boxing (I have joint damage from boxing, so I would not accept this premise as true), do remember that joint damage is a lot less serious condition than brain damage.
Thus, the thesis that MMA fighting is safer than boxing remains true.
Sxio wrote:
But that’s just regarding brain damage from striking. What about cumulative joint damage from submission techniques? There’s none of that in boxing.
[/quote]
Cumulative brain damage is certainly the most serious concern in any contact sport (with the possible exception of spinal cord injury, which is much rarer). The reason boxers have more of it are that the rules of the sport – shorter rounds, ten-second breaks after knockdowns during which the standing fighter has to go to a neutral corner, and even (in some federations) standing eight counts – are set-up to allow them to take more punishment.
That is, in MMA a fight is much more likely to end the first time one of the fighters gets really rocked since if he goes down his opponent can go to the ground with him and either continue pummeling him and force a TKO or put some kind of submission on him.
(By the way, I have joint damage from boxing, too – elbows and shoulders.)
I’ve gotten into a discussion about this during my lunchbreak at work. A crwe of firefighters sitting around the chow-table watching an interesting piece on the O’Reilly Factor. So our own discussion starts. Me being the only one who has participated in both MMA and boxing was the one to argue that MMA is not as dangerous as boxing. The other members of the crew who side with boxing saying the MMA is the most dangerous, barbaric sport are either former golden gloves or weekend warrior types with no more experience than shadow boxing and hitting a heavy bag. I just say my side about MMA being not as dangerous, and I get the blitzkrieg of opinions. After the dust settles I ask,
“So what do that make boxing? Harmless?”
The conversation ends in silence.
While the arguement still continues till this day, those guys like to watch MMA events yet won’t come out onto the mat with me during PT and get loosened up.
[quote]Sxio wrote:
But that’s just regarding brain damage from striking. What about cumulative joint damage from submission techniques? There’s none of that in boxing. [/quote]
What you are talking about does not exist. Bones break when submission holds go too far. That is all.
In terms of brain damage people also forget about the gloves, in boxing they are not pillowy and are designed to protect the boxers hands not the opponents head and body, their larger surface area also reduces instances of acute pressure (on knuckle points) while the force of the strike remains more or less the same.
Acute pressure points are more likely to cause trauma to the skull which dissipates the force away from the brain. Gloves however circumvent the skulls ‘give’ and more force gets transmitted to the brain leading to concussions and swelling. For instance in MMA fights and hockey fights the incidence of orbital bone and cheek bone breaks are proportionately higher in comparison to jaw and nose breaks wherea in boxers its moslty noses and jaws and less often the other two.
A good analogy is beating someone with a sack of phonebooks vs a baseball bat, the latter breaks alot of ribs and causes alot of structural damage but the former can cause alot of internal tissue damage with little or no skeletal harm. This may be specious reasoning but thats my .02.
I agree with what has been said, I believe the fact that brain trauma is minimized due to fast stops gives MMA a big edge in safety.
However, there have been two occassions when I seriously thought someone died in the MMA ring, and that was when Bob Sapp powerslammed Noguiera right onto his head and when Randleman suplexed Fedor onto his. The Fedor one wasn’t nearly as serious as it looked, but when Sapp slammed Nog, Jesus.
Nog said he was completely out and it was Sapp’s follow up punches that woke him up. I think the potential for a head spike paralysis or worse is there, and probably presents the biggest risk of serious injury in MMA.
What you are talking about does not exist. Bones break when submission holds go too far. That is all.
[/quote]
Is that why my elbow hurts in cold wet weather?
In actuality, it’s the ligaments or tendons that snap, although this depends on the lock applied. In a cross arm lock for example, or a juji gatame, it’s the connective tissue at the elbow that will be damaged, no bones will be broken.
J. Boogey has pummeled the correct, if in a somewhat technical way. Here’s an easy way to look at it.
How many times does a boxer get punched in the head compared to an MMA fighter? Literally thousands of times more in a year. That adds up over time. The gloves are a big factor due to what J. Boogey said.
I almost always ended up with a headache after heavy boxing. I got more cuts and fat lips from MMA, but never a headache.
I actually think Judo is the most dangerous, if we’re looking at the severity of damage. Boxing (and even mma generally) don’t have as high a potential to kill or cripple someone as Judo does. If you fall wrong, or the guy dumps you wrong, and you end up getting your head spiked into the mat, it’s pretty much not gonna be a good thing.