Is MMA a safer sport than boxing?

[Bend NvR Break]

Actually competition I'd say MMA is safer.

Training though I'd definitely say boxing though. The only other sport that has more injuries occur in practice than MMA is football.

 

[These Two Hands]

I believe it is, in competition, if only for the fact that MMA doesn't have 10 counts and standing 8 counts which have contributed to a lot of cumulative brain damage in many boxers/kickboxers/&c. over the years. In MMA when you're out you're out, you don't get to find your "sea legs" and carry on fighting. It's a world of difference.

My .02, YMMV

 

[screaminleeman]

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.

Kind of a "weird" way of saying that they "Boxing gloves" are designed to provide considerably better protection for fragile bones in a fighters hands than MMA gloves.

Still, your bottom line is correct. Better protection of a fighters hands allows for them to throw considerably harder punches and do so for a much longer time without risking damage to the hand, hence making the resulting danger to the opponent in Boxing WAY more dangerous than to the opponent of a MMA fight.

Hell, the worst "striking" contests I have ever seen a bare knuckle fights. One minute, and both competitors have mojo broken hands, and are forced to waltz rather than fight. Utter garbage.

Gloves are ONLY to protect a fighters hands. Period!

 

[no fat chicks]

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

There's also this:

He also did a lot of kick boxing so it's tough to just claim mma did that

 

[MayhemMonkey]

in terms of brain injury then yes.... there are more areas available to attack in MMA.... so less time is spent getting hit on the head

 

[campbecc]

I think it's safer, partially due to the gloves. I know it sounds counter intuitive to say that bigger gloves are less safe. But it's a lot more dangerous to be hit repeatedly for 10 rounds than hit once and knocked out.

 

[porcodio]

Hard to say without long term data to analyse.

 

[porcodio]

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.

Nope. Boxing gloves are design ti protect the hands.

 

[EffinCraig]

Evangelista Santos can vouch for how safe MMA is.


Also, this feels like arguing about which is safer; getting shot or getting stabbed?

 

[HIMBOB]

Mma is less safe but has less severe injuries.

Fyi netball is the most dangerous sport in Australia but its hardly a dangerous sport imo.

 

[tenniswhiz]

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.

This is completely false.

Furthermore, if a boxer even slightly staggers while getting back up, the fight is over.
If the ref doesn't like the look in a boxer's eye or the way he talks after getting rocked, it's over.

A boxing ref would call fights like Cain/JDS or TJ/Barao 100's of strikes earlier.

 

[AshiharaFan]

He also did a lot of kick boxing so it's tough to just claim mma did that

This is true. I just feel bad for the dude. He put everything he had in every match he's ever fought and this is the long term price that he has to pay for it. Sucks man.

 

[tenniswhiz]

Over 500 people have died in auto racing over the past 5 years.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/charlo...ar-auto-racing/thatsracin/article9152399.html

Far more dangerous than MMA or boxing.

 

[OverCoronavirus Pressure]

There's no way to win in boxing without throwing a punch.
Absolutely, it's safer.
Frequently in boxing, neither fighter looks good at the after party.
With a quick sub, mma fighters party without a scratch on em.

 

[Alphaboy]

This is completely false.

Furthermore, if a boxer even slightly staggers while getting back up, the fight is over.
If the ref doesn't like the look in a boxer's eye or the way he talks after getting rocked, it's over.

A boxing ref would call fights like Cain/JDS or TJ/Barao 100's of strikes earlier.

A good ref can see that a boxer has taken injury yes, but sometimes a fighter who was in no shape to fight continues...

Look at that Holly Holm boxing match where that girl almost killed her because the ref sucked... She was standing so he allowed it.

I can't imagine any ref allowing a fighter on the ground to take that much of a pounding.

 

[Alphaboy]

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.

I suppose you are correct. I guess I'd take some chronic joint problems from submissions to neurological problems.

 

[ShreddinMMA]

The few studies on this showed boxing was a lost worse for brain damage. MMA likely has a higher rate of injury overall (given how much more free form it is from boxing, where more parts of the body are open to injury), but boxing is far worse for head trauma.

 

[DWAYNEAMERICA]

Standing 8 count is the cruelest rule in sports.

 

[HHJ]

Pretty easy to see that its safer.

Getting punched in the head for 12 rounds,plus all the sparring rounds on the way there is going to do more brain damage.

 

[AshiharaFan]

It may be too early to tell for certain since mma is such a young sport, but mma Does Appear to be safer than boxing as far as long term brain trauma is concerned. I could be wrong about this. If a person was looking at choosing one or the other as a fight career he would have to ask himself if he would rather have less overall injury but risk being punch drunk after retirement (boxing) or if he would rather minimize the risk of being punch drunk later in life but have to undergo more surgeries and other non brain injuries than he would in boxing (mma).