Injuries in MMA in general?
 

I see that somebody posted a thread about the dangers of getting knocked-out.
That brought to mind a discussion that took place recently in the back of the country and western bar Horseface Charlie's.
As I mentioned in a thread elsewhere in the forum, the owner brought in a projection TV and and movie theater size screen and he shows fights and MMA and UFC events and tapes and DVD's and stuff, and one night, I don't know whose particular match it was, but somebody was getting guillotine-choked, and one of the waittresses said,"That looks really dangerous!!"
and somebody pointed out to her a statistic that I have often heard touted, namely,that there are actually far less serious injuries in boxing and MMA than there are in pro football!!!
Do you agree with that?
Is that,in fact,true:Are there more serious injuries in pro football than there are in the pro fight game?
And if it is, why do you suppose that that is so?

There has only been 1 death in a sactioned MMA event(in texas), while there are loads of deaths in almost every other contact sport. Hell, watching a soccer game in england is more dangerous than stepping in the cage(in terms of dying).

What sanctioned match in Texas? And what was the unfortunate fighter's name? How did he die? What killed him( I assume that is was a "he," and not a "she.")?
The reason that I am asking all this is that I never knew that there were any deaths at all in MMA.
In boxing, off the top of my head I recall Benny Kid Paret and a fighter named Kim, but in general, other sports had way more deaths as I recall it.
But yes, this is a new one on me.
I always thought that there were no deaths in MMA, and certainly far less injuries than a lot of other sports(including racketball.)

It was Sam Vasquez who dies. They aren't sure what he died from, but they think it was something that he had wrong with his head before the fight and getting punched pushed it over the limit. He sustained brain damage.

Ya, I read the guy had a prexisting blood clot or something like that.

But why do you think that is? Why are the MMA actually less dangerous as a sport than other sports? I take it that you gentlemen do,indeed,agree with the statistics that imply that there are far more injuries in other sports.
And yet, I do see that waitress' point in that this does seem to be counter-intuitive,this does seems to go against logic.I mean, the martial arts are just that, martial arts, they were invented for warfare.
And warfare, after all, is about utterly destroying whoever you happen to be at war with, isn't it?
So how could this be?
Why is MMA actually safer than other sports in terms of the potential for injury?

Its simple. In MMA, if you get hit hard and you go down, youre pretty much finished. You can tap easily, refs stop fights based on KO/cant defend quickly, while in boxing you can get hit, even KOed and if you get back up in time, you keep fighting. Repeated shots to the head without a long time to recover leads to brain damage/death. MMA doesnt have as many repeated shots as boxing, so they dont get those types of problems. Also, MMA rules protect the spinal column/brain stem really well.

Basically, the standing 8 in boxing allows boxers who have concussions to keep fighting, once you have a concussion, every following blow just makes it worse. Do this enough and you have someone die in a fight, you get Ali, etc.



From ESPN

"Vasquez suffered a massive stroke while hospitalized. Comments attributed to his wife, Sandra, on the mixed martial arts forum www.txmma.com indicated he had been in a medically induced coma and had undergone two surgeries to remove blood clots in his brain."

Okay.
But I am thinking more along the lines of,how do you explain the fact that there are more injuries in the non-combat sports like football than there are in MMA?
How do you explain the fact that statistically speaking, there are way more injuries in sports like football and soccer than there are in MMA? In fact, there are more serious injuries in all the other sports?
Appreciate it,
Ferdelance

Well, take football for example. A poorly executed tackle(spear), causes the helmet of the tackler to hit the sternum of the person being tackled. This can crack the sternum, bruise the heart, even kill. On the person doing the tackle, it can cause severe brain trauma and spinal damage(due to alignment at impact). This is just one type of injury. Catching someone in the knees can end careers, a firm strike to the spine with a shoulder or helmet, etc.

Mostly it is about protecting the center line(spine, brain, and sternum), imagine a line dividing your body in half vertically. Many of the injuries throughout any sport are located here and of course knees. In football especially, the spine is open for tackles from the back, illegal blocks, accidental spears damaging both parties, etc. Also, you have to consider the fact that in football there are pile ups, blocks where a twisted knee can get 2 guys laying on it, etc.

In terms of preventing injuries:

1. MMA focuses on striking to the head for KOs, which are given far faster than in boxing, and take a fighter out far quicker than in football. In almost any sport, if you get your bell rung, you take 15 seconds and get back in, unless its REALLY bad. MMA doesnt do that, so they dont allow repeated head trauma.

2. MMA controls any joint damage with ref stoppages or tapouts. In football you cant tap and get the 300 pound guy off of your knee that his weight is hyper extending.(just one example of hundreds).

3. MMA doesnt allow any attacks which may damage the spine, anything to the back of the head/spine is against the rules. Football its encouraged. You are supposed to go for center mass as hard as you can. Tacklers want to throw the biggest hit possible to that area.

There are loads more, but these are the main areas.

Excellent reply!:thumb01: