Is MMA a brutal sport? It certainly isn't ballet. But how dangerous is it? Fighters get their face beat in, lose teeth, bleed all over the place and get their noses broken, but what are their chances of dying from participating in MMA? How does a hard-charging sport like MMA compare to other contact sports in terms of the number of participants that are killed?
Interestingly enough, sanctioned MMA events now have more rules and regulations than ever. There has been only 1 death in any event by a sanctioned MMA organization (UFC, Pride, etc.) in this country since 1998. On October 20, 2007 Sammy Vasquez was critically injured in Houston Texas in an event by Renegades Extreme Fighting. Vasquez died nearly 2 months after the match. The only other reported death in MMA was at an event in Russia. Douglas Dedge, who died, was said to have blacked out several times in training sessions before being killed in the Russian match. He would never have been allowed to fight in any sanctioned MMA event in the U.S.
Here is the tragic video of the passing of Douglas Dedge.
By contrast, in boxing there have been 71 deaths since 1998. Professional and Semi-Pro Football has claimed 17 lives. Despite not being a real sport, professional wrestling is responsible for some 65 deaths since 1997!
So, should fighters hang up the MMA gloves? I think not. You have a better chance of getting killed driving home from an MMA event!
REFERENCES
Gregory H. Bledsoe, Edbert B. Hsu, Jurek George Grabowski, Justin D. Brill and
Guohua Li (2006) INCIDENCE OF INJURY IN PROFESSIONAL MIXED MARTIAL
ARTS COMPETITIONS. Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2006) 136-142.
Anthony Armstrong (2007) TEXAS FIGHTER DIES.
http://www.thefightnetwork.com/news_detail.php?nid=5555
Frederick O. Mueller, Ph.D. (2007) Annual Survey of Football Injury Research.
National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research http://www.unc.edu
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Vasquez being the first death in a sanctioned event is tragic, yes. But that shows says something about the avanues that MMA has taken to protect the athletes.
Props to the states that are coming around to see it logically and not assuming all MMA fights to be human cock fights.
As far as Dedge, he had a pre-existing medical condition and couldnt get cleared to fight in the states by any athletic commission. During one of those early day, tough-man competitions he was beaten senseless causing severe concussion and possibly cracked skull that led to every doctor he saw telling him he needed to stop fighting. He didnt listen to the doctors because that was how he made his living.....and the rest is history.
The only other notable death happened in Mexico and wasn't sanctioned either (go figure)
Alfredo Castro Herrera, age 15 died following a mixed martial arts match. Herrera's opponent was Angel Luis Rodriguez, age 16. The venue was the Municipal Auditorium in Tijuana, Mexico.
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