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Originally Posted by Dr. MMA  Exactly. It's too young of a sport to evaluate its long term injuries, although Liddell's speech patterns and Goodridge's dementia are illustrative of the long-term impact.
There is eventually going to be an autopsy of a more popular MMA fighter one day, and they're going to see how bad the condition of the brain is. That's going to stir up some big problems about the safety of MMA, although I don't see what else can be done to make it safer aside from more rigorous testing, lengthier medical suspensions, faster intervention from the ref for a TKO, or maybe 6oz gloves.
To call it the safest sport, just because they have medical suspensions is very stupid and ignorant. The reason many other sports don't have those medical suspensions is because they're not getting knocked out cold. I also question how rigorous the medical clearance to fight is; there are many fighters who fought with injuries, some being quite severe. |
This is what I'm really worried about, that in 10+ years I'm going to see some of my favorite fighters with serious brain injuries. I'm hoping that shorter fights and quicker finishes then boxing will prevent the big safety problems that were common in the past. However, ref's let fights go on a lot longer in MMA then in boxing. I hate when they let a guy stagger around the ring or turtle up and take 10-30 seconds of one sided beating, just so he has a chance to recover.