by Adeniyi Makinde
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a full-contact sport that allows grappling and striking by using various techniques from different martial arts. MMA has grown fast over the years in the United States and beyond but, due to its physical nature, it is associated with different kinds of injuries.
Boxing, on the other hand, is a combat sport in which two people, wearing protective gloves, fight for a given amount of time, in a boxing ring. Compared to Boxing, MMA is a relatively new sport and over the years, there have been debates amongst critics on how dangerous both are. MMA is considered the most dangerous contact sports by many because of its brutality and bloody nature while boxing hasn’t received so much criticism on injuries.
WHAT DOES RESEARCH SAY?
According to researchers at the Glen Sather sports medicine clinic, after studying a decade worth of post-match MMA and Boxing medical examination data, they found out that MMA fighters have a higher risk of minor injuries. However, Boxers are liable to suffer higher major injuries such as brain trauma and concussions.
Shelby Karpman, a sports medicine physician at the Glen Sather clinic and also the study’s lead author, said in a press release: “Yes, you’re more likely to get injured if you’re participating in mixed martial arts, but the injury severity is less overall than boxing, most of the blood you see in mixed martial arts is from bloody noses or facial cuts; it doesn’t tend to be as severe but looks a lot worse than it actually is.”
In the research carried out by Karpman and colleagues from the U of A Faculty of Rehabilitation medicine, Leah Philips, Doug Gross, Ziling Qin and also Patrick Reid from the Edmonton Combative Sports Commission, they reviewed post-match medical records of 1,181 MMA fighters and 550 boxers who fought matches in Edmonton between 2003 and 2013.
The research showed that MMA fighters suffered different kinds of injuries higher than Boxers with an injury rate of 59.4 percent to 49.8 percent. Most of the injuries seen in MMA fighters were mere bruises but boxers tend to suffer brain damages, unconsciousness, and eye injuries.
Manuel Velazquez Boxing Fatality Center started keeping track of deaths since the 1940s and has recorded 339 deaths from 1950 to 2007 that were a result of head injuries. It recorded 60 deaths in professional boxing matches from 1999 to 2011. It also recorded four MMA related deaths from 1981 to 2007 with only that of Samuel Vazquez a regulated contest.
THE EXPERTS’ TAKE
Nick Lembo of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, a department that sanctions MMA and boxing events, said: “In MMA, you’re going to see there’s more violence in their advertising and marketing, and to the casual observer it does seem more primitive and more violent…But in terms of serious injuries, it seems safer than boxing.”
Injuries are inevitable in combat sports, all the fighters are aware of this and are all trained to take hits. However, the study by the Glen Sather Sports Medicine Clinic speaks the same as Victor Valimaki, a 14 year experienced MMA veteran. Valimaki, who has gotten injured in almost all his body parts, said, “There are definitely risks. I’ve been pretty messed up, most injuries happen during training. Injuries during an actual fight are superficial–typically black eyes, cuts, and the odd broken hand,”
Though on-lookers and those who know little or nothing about combat sports would suggest otherwise; researches, interviews, and data show that MMA is safer than Boxing. “When you’re looking at damage and injury, it really depends on what type of injuries you’re talking about,” said Trevor Whitman an MMA coach but is experienced in both Boxing and MMA, “Because of the repercussions of the head attacks in boxing, it was, to me, clearly the more dangerous of the two. But, at the beginning, I looked at MMA and thought, wow, that’s brutal. I thought it was way more dangerous than boxing.”
By Adeniyi Makinde
”Adeniyi is both a martial artist and a writer. He was influenced by Jet Li, and grew up loving Chinese martial arts though he didn’t get the chance and opportunity to learn from childhood. He luckily met a kindhearted teacher who saw his passion and love for the art and has been teaching him for the past seven years till date.”
3 Comments
I’d say they both can be dangerous, however due to there being longer rounds in boxing and the amount of accumulated damage being inflicted on boxers, there’s a much higher chance of permanent injuries or even death.
I don’t think I ever heard about any mma fighters dying in a match, however it has happened before in Boxing, the most recent being a Korean boxing dying from his injuries at a world champion match.
I would not disagree with you. In MMA I’m not sure if there has been any deaths of hand however there has been a few who have died in MMA due to weight cutting.
That’s awful but an unfortunate consequence of combat sports when fighters try to go down to a much lower weight class than their bodies have been given time to become accustomed to.
I would guess the aggressive weight cutting mainly due to excessive dehydration causes a whole bunch of health problems that led to this.