Is MMA a safer sport than boxing?

[Alphaboy]

Joe Rogan once made a great point that I did not consider: He said MMA is safer than boxing.

While MMA looks more dangerous because you have guys mounted on each other on the ground beating each other bloody, once one of them takes too many hits, the fight is over.

Once an MMA knocker gets knocked down, they get rushed by their opponent and the fight is over. However, once a boxer is knocked down, he gets to stand back up and keep receiving further brain damage.

I know MMA is a relatively new sport (Hell, Gracie is only 50), but do you think we'll have many Muhammad Ali - like Mixed Martial Artists?

Do you agree with Joe?

 

[UL]

Nope.

And also, more injuries.

Also @KONE the av has been updated.

 

[Guernica]

Jiujutsu certainly is. My gut tells me that as a whole MMA is certainly safer because of not taking repeated shots to the head, but it's suck a new sport to know with any real certainty.

#GUERNICAgoat

 

[BEAST]

You can lose in MMA by never getting struck once.
In boxing, there is almost zero chance of losing without getting a barrage of headshots, unless someone throws a sick body shot.

Concussions will fuck you up.

MMA is definitely safer.

 

[Ravendarat]

I absolutely think its safer. The sustained damage over a long boxing career is far more dangerous to the brain as opposed to MMA in most peoples opinions

 

[Alphaboy]

Jiujutsu certainly is. My gut tells me that as a whole MMA is certainly safer because of not taking repeated shots to the head, but it's suck a new sport to know with any real certainty.

#GUERNICAgoat

Guess we'll have to wait and see what the long-term consequences are.

Although Donald Cerrone said on Joe Rogan's show that he may be starting to get brain damage... but he attributed it to sparring too hard.

 

[Ragnar Lothbrok]

Nope.

And also, more injuries.

Also @KONE the av has been updated.

Jiujutsu certainly is. My gut tells me that as a whole MMA is certainly safer because of not taking repeated shots to the head, but it's suck a new sport to know with any real certainty.

#GUERNICAgoat

It's actually way safer long-term, boxing gloves are designed to rattle the brain around your head instead of knocking somebody out, MMA gloves fit the chin perfectly so there's way less of that.

 

[superpunch]

No. Anyone who says it's safer is probably a UFC promoter, like Joe Rogan.

This was a common viewpoint back 10-15 years ago. It's just nonsense Dana White made up to get the sport more mainstream though.

Let me guess -- more ways to win than KOs, no standing 10 counts? lol

 

[Alphaboy]

You can lose in MMA by never getting struck once.
In boxing, there is almost zero chance of losing without getting a barrage of headshots, unless someone throws a sick body shot.

Concussions will fuck you up.

MMA is definitely safer.

Not to mention you can also lose a fight to a submission, taking few to no strikes at all... something that cannot happen in boxing obviously.

 

[Cygnus-X]

Of course it's safer.

It's too bad legislators are such idiots that they made gloves mandatory, as gloves made MMA closer to boxing in terms of danger. Without the gloves there would be significantly less risk of head trauma and MMA would be ridiculously safer than boxing.

 

[The Bard]

Probably, but we'll have to wait until enough MMA vets are old and retarded to compare our number of retards to their number of retards.

 

[BEAST]

Of course it's safer.

It's too bad legislators are such idiots that they made gloves mandatory, as gloves made MMA closer to boxing in terms of danger. Without the gloves there would be significantly less risk of head trauma and MMA would be ridiculously safer than boxing.

And broken knuckle recovery after every event.

 

[Chain Saw]

It definitely is safer as far as brain damage goes.

More likely to injure the rest of your body, though.

 

[Gratis]

In general it can be safer, but it also holds the potential for much more violent knockouts.

 

[Touch of Death]

I have a feeling neither are particularly good for your long-term health....
Something to do with head trauma.

 

[SeattleFightFan]

it would help if you used better adjectives than "safer".

POINT 1: there are more injuries in mma than boxing. that is undeniable. MMA fighters get way more surgeries than boxers.

POINT 2: there is an argument that boxers are more susceptible to getting their brain damaged in boxing than mma, primarily due to the standing 8 count (e.g. if a boxer's bell is wrung, they get a standing 8 count and then keep getting hit in the head, whereas in mma usually when a guy gets his bell wrung the fight ends very quickly)

assuming the 2nd point is true, then does more injuries but less brain damage = "safer"? that's a debate unto itself, but a purely semantic one.

and the 2nd point is far from a fact. it's a reasonable hypothesis, at best. one i happen to agree with.

 

[maxi diablo]

It's actually way safer long-term, boxing gloves are designed to rattle the brain around your head instead of knocking somebody out, MMA gloves fit the chin perfectly so there's way less of that.

Perectly said. Would rather take superficial cuts than brain damage.

 

[Dafeem]

Depends on what you mean by "safer". MMA will have fewer brain injuries over a career, but way more mechanical injuries. wrestling/bjj is hell on knees, back, and neck. Not to mention the broken shins/forearms in MT. I'd still rather have the latter...

P.S.

a lot more cuts in MMA than in western boxing

 

[Shammon]

Statistically, over the long term, MMA is probably safer.

I know there are a few boxing deaths per year, but does anyone have any figure on the number of MMA deaths?

Like I see something like Romero-Weidman where a guy's skull could have gotten cracked in half or any of the numerous headkick KO's followed up by head bouncing follow up shots and wonder how there aren't more horrific deaths in MMA.

 

[AshiharaFan]

At this point I don't know if mma is safer than boxing or not. What I do know is that Gary "Big Daddy" Goodridge currently suffers from CTE.

http://www.mmafighting.com/2012/3/13/2867460/the-fighter-who-stayed-too-long

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