This week a study was published at the National Library of Medicine discussion and contrasting eye injury rates in Boxing and MMA. The authors reviewed data from the Nevada Athletic Commission for Boxing and MMA bouts for a 20 year period form 2000-2020. In short they found that boxing had higher eye injury rates than … More Study – Eye Injury Rates in Boxing and MMA

Older fighters require special consideration when it comes to licencing. According to the Association of Ringside Physicians these athletes are at increased risk of “neurological, orthopedic, and ophthalmological injuries” and they require extra care when being cleared for competition. They further note that an athletes “past athletic achievements” matter little and regulators should be instead … More Ringside Doctors – Older Fighters At Increased Risk of Brain, Bone and Eye Injuries

This month the Association of Ringside Physicians, doctors specializing in overseeing the health and safety of athletes at combat sports events, published their latest position statement on headgear. In short they state that “Headguards should not be relied upon to reduce the risk of concussion or other traumatic brain injury. They have not been shown … More Ringside Doctors – Headgear Doesn’t Help With Concussions

CTE cannot be confirmed until after death. However in 2021 criteria were agreed upon to diagnose suspected CTE in the living. Doctors call it Traumatic Encephalopathy Syndrome (“TES”). This month research was published in the Journal Neurology showing value in the use of the TES diagnosis. In the study, titled Longitudinal Changes in Regional Brain … More Fighters With Suspected CTE Show Reduced Brain Volume and Cognitive Decline in Longitudinal Study

Many studies dealing with brain damage in sport focus on professional rather than amateur athletes. There is no reason to think trauma created harm cares about whether an athlete is being paid or not for their serial brain rattling and gathering data from amateur sport is equally important. To this end a recent study was … More Study – Amateur Boxers Have Triple The Rates of Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease Compared To General Population

CTE is a disease of mileage. The more brain rattling you are exposed over the greater number of years the greater the risk. This week researchers from Boston University published a study shedding perhaps the best light to date on this reality. In short they found that the collective force of the cumulative hits your … More Study – Collective Force of Career Brain Rattling Strong Predictor of CTE

A few years back I wrote about how dis-unified the unified rules of MMA are in practice.  In short they are very scattered and inconsistent across jurisdictions. This week I obtained data via an open records request breaking this disparity down specifically for the definition of grounded opponents. Using the published rules across US State commissions … More The Dis-Unified Rules of “Grounded” Fighters Plus Knee Strike Data

The 12-6 Elbow. One of the more bizarre fouls under MMA’s unified rules. A foul that some regulators insisted on including in the first draft of the unified rules and compromise was reached. Over the years there has been pushback to remove the foul but health and safety concerns about adding a new tool to … More Data Shows 12-6 Elbows No More Dangerous Than Other Legal Strikes

A major Columbia University study was published this month finding that many NHL players die young and enforcers die younger. The study, titled Fighting and Penalty Minutes Associated With Long-term Mortality Among National Hockey League Players, 1967 to 2022, reviewed mortality rates among NHL players and broke down the findings based on the number of … More Study – NHL Fighters Die Young. CTE Pathology Common.