While MMA competition is occasionally depicted as brutal by the media, there has never been a death or crippling injury in a sanctioned MMA event in North America. The only verified fatality in MMA competition is the 1998 death of Douglas Dedge in a fight in Ukraine. There are unconfirmed reports that Dedge had a pre-existing medical condition prior to the fight.

Dedge took several shots directly to the head before the referee stopped the contest. Dedge collapsed after the fight and died two days later from severe brain injuries at the Kiev Institute of Neurosurgery.

So I don’t know what you saw, but it wasn’t UFC, and nobody else has ever seen someone die instantly in the ring.

Meanwhile (also Wikipedia):

More than 350 amateur and professional boxers have been killed in the ring since 1945; for example, Duk Koo Kim who on November 13, 1982 held a fight with Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini which led to Duk’s death five days later.

Fatality rates per 100,000 participants

1. Horse racing: 128
2. Sky diving: 123
3. Hang gliding: 56
4. Mountaineering: 51
5. Scuba Diving: 11
6. Motorcycle racing: 7
7. College Football: 3
8. Boxing: 1.3

I obviously don’t have stats on how mixed martial arts stacks up in that list, but I would guess that it’s actually lower than boxing, so let’s not pretend that it’s any more brutal. Regardless, there are those who argue that UFC matches, for instance, are less brutal and less dangerous than boxing because of the way that knockdowns, knockouts and standing 8-counts are handled. I’m not a doctor, so I can’t speak with any certainty, but then again, neither are you. I’ll just say that sanctioned fights in the UFC are handled in the same way as sanctioned boxing matches in regards to licensing fighters, clearing them to fight, and keeping doctors on hand to examine the fighters during the match.

Travis said:

Boxing is a classy kind of fight, where its half art/half strengh/half will power (yes i know there are 3 halfs… its a game when you have to give your 133% ;) )
This isn’t “Bash your opponants face in with 0 grace… 0 sportsmanship… etc” this is boxing… I give props to anyone who does it, it takes more then strengh… its actaully mostly their minds fighting.

I don’t want to take over the conversation here, but:

a) Sportsmanship isn’t something a sport has, it’s something an athlete has. You’ll find boxers with and without any sense of sportsmanship, just like you will in MMA. The fact that so many fighter in MMA come from a martial arts background would lead me to believe that you’re going to get a higher level of respect and sportsmanship shown in the ring. And…

b) If you want to see a chess match played out physically, watch the Abu Dhabi Combat Club videos (they’re all over the place) where the best submission fighters in the world meet. Watching these guys roll and grapple and jockey for position in order to pull off complicated multi-step submission attempts is far more impressive than, “Maybe this time I’ll lead with the jab.”

As for Lloyd’s comment, I’ll just point out that boxing certainly has a fine heritage, but certainly not more than greco-roman wrestling, jiu-jitsu, muay thai, or karate which are the roots of MMA. It may be the newcomer, but its roots are just as deep, if not deeper.

Crap – I wrote too much – now I’m officially the troll. Sorry.

As for mayweather, he’s just soar. If he’s so hard why dosen’t he challenge UFC lightweight Champ Shawn “The Muscle Shark” Shrek to fight?

What I saw from Mayweather was someone who won at least seven of the twelve rounds on the ten point must system. In truth, he should have won a unanimous decision. Surprisingly, the one judge one might have been expected to do a terrible job scoring, Cianci, who is routinely incompetent, wasn’t the one who botched his scorecard.

The Pretty Boy is a counterpuncher and has spent his entire career as one. If he is going to knock out an opponent it’s with combinations of four and five punches. He was playing it too safe to have a chance at hitting De La Hoya more than once or twice per exchange. He was not going to get drawn into even a semblance of a slugfest. For that I can only admire him.

Acting as the agressor in boxing, admirable though it is, is not a ticket to victory unless the agression translates into physical domination. De La Hoya tried, boy did he try, but he did not have nearly enough to cope with Mayweather’s brilliant technical abilities. I seriously doubt he would’ve done any better three years ago. Oscar’s lurching bull style was not only ugly to look at, it was, for all the menace it seemed to promise, ineffective. And I agree with those who observed that save for the last part of the last round, Oscar seemed to run out of gas towards the end of the fight. That’s no way to get a decision unless you’ve won most of the early rounds which he clearly didn’t. As for Mayweather’s father, he seemed only marginally coherent, and clearly has an axe to grind against his son. Perhaps De La Hoya will adopt Mayweather Sr. as a second dad.

Dave: My stance is not necessarily that De La Hoya beat Mayweather. Only that neither fighter seemed to really do any beating at all, and with a different scoring system, I wonder if you could change this. Also, as Calvin mentioned above, split purses really take away a lot of the incentive to fight. The purse should always sway heavily towards the victor. By the way, Mayweather’s reach is longer than De La Hoya’s if I remember correctly. :)

Yeah, I can’t watch the UFC stuff because about ten years ago someone sent me a video clip of a guy getting his neck snapped in a UFC match and dying instantly (I didn’t know what it was when I opened the clip). He was just getting pummeled with punches and after one of them hit, his head snapped back and every muscle in his body went limp as he crumbled to the canvas. Normally when people get knocked out, it’s a slow gradual sinking to the ground, but this was just instant. It was one of the most disturbing things I’ve ever seen and I couldn’t get it out of my head for weeks.

Hmmm. I can only think of one KO that fits this description: Tank Abbot vs. Steve Nelmark. Here’s the fight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3Omlns16V0

The KO happens just after 1:10 in the video. It really is a disturbing KO to see, but it was just a KO.

You don’t need to look at the KO again, just check the first few seconds of footage and tell me if these are the same 2 guys you remember from the video that originally put you off UFC.

I love playing Fight Detective. :)

I have no idea when “MMA sanctioned” even became a meaningful term. Maybe after too many injuries or deaths?

As noted above, there has only been 1 death in MMA, and the injuries in any given fight are similar to those found in boxing.

I’m not sure how so many otherwise intelligent people have the idea that mixed martial arts is a rule-less affair. It’s been sanctioned by multiple state athletic commissions and has been using rules similar to boxing (weight classes, safety equipment, numerous rules and fouls) for 7 years now. 7 years is a long time.

Clearly you’re not opposed to combat sport in general. Instead of being turned off by something that you didn’t actually see (although I can think of a few sickening knockouts that certainly *looked* like the poor guy was expired), think of it like this:

Picture 2 guys doing freestyle collegiate wrestling.
Now picture 2 guys boxing.
Now picture 2 guys kickboxing.
Now picture 2 guys doing all three at once.

That’s mixed martial arts. With all the same skills and rules that any of the component sports have.

You’re not an ignorant sports fan, Mike, so please don’t make ignorant statements.

I think the perception of MMA is one of the UFC marketing. The perception is one of violence (not a ‘sweet’ science like boxing) and despite the UFC success, I really doubt it will get close to the general acceptance of boxing.

I don’t know about acceptance, but in 2006 UFC alone generated more PPV revenue than all the boxing PPVs. It seems that people are accepting it with their wallets, if nothing else.

I think the boxing/mma argument is silly. You have two fantastic combat sports who each offer their particular flavor for a viewer. I’m not sure why people continue to bash mma with ignorant and incorrect statements about the skill level involved, the rules, etc., but it’s sad to see otherwise sharp sports fans turn into knee-jerk know-nothings and sport-bashers when the subject of mixed martial arts comes up.

The media is really playing up the middleweight divisions through a lack of real heavyweight talent across the world at the moment. In the UK, it’s all about Calzage and Khan. But both fighters are struggling to strike the right deals in the US (maybe that’s the promotion at fault), but as a result, the UK TV audience for boxing is dwindling. TV networks such as the BBC aren’t interested, ITV own the rights for Khan’s fights for a while I think, but as soon as his management get greedy, we’ll see that vanish. Shame.

The whole MMA/Boxing argument is an interesting one. Statistically, boxing is more dangerous for one simple reason. There is too much protection. Boxers wear large gloves and pound away to the head for a long time. In MMA, there is minimal padding. If you get hit hard in MMA, you either get knocked out, or you get cut – either way, the fight is stopped. Also, boxing has been around for a lot longer than MMA, therefore there is bound to be more statistical information floating around. That said though, MMA is more brutal to the casual viewer and that, I feel, is the problem.

Boxing is quite straight-forward. Two guys punch each other. Good MMA is a much more subtle affair. If the bout goes to the ground, it can be a chess game that many people (who i’ve watched with) don’t understand. If the fighters stand up and trade though, it can look like a brawl outside a bar on a Saturday night, and nobody wants to see that.

I think the perception of MMA is one of the UFC marketing. The perception is one of violence (not a ‘sweet’ science like boxing) and despite the UFC success, I really doubt it will get close to the general acceptance of boxing.

With regard to boxing and fatalities/injuries, yep, I agree. It’s a violent sport as well. It’s just a little more palatable because we’re all so used to it and it “seems” less violent (even though it may not be). It’s all about perception.

Oh wait, this was the boring combat sport, not MMA. No wonder.

After all of his smack-talk about MMA, I’d like to see Floyd take on Sean Sherk, the UFC lightweight champion.