Fighters With Suspected CTE Show Reduced Brain Volume and Cognitive Decline in Longitudinal Study

July 3, 2023

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

Study – Amateur Boxers Have Triple The Rates of Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease Compared To General Population

June 27, 2023

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

13%

June 26, 2023

The UFC reportedly brings in more profit than all other MMA and boxing promoters in the world COMBINED. John Nash of BloodyElbow reports on UFC finances with more detail than any other journalist I am aware of. I will simply let the above fact and the below tweet speak for themselves.

Is the PFL’s “Season” Format Totally Made Up?

June 24, 2023

The PFL is an MMA promotion that tries to separate themselves from the pack by having a regular season, playoffs, and seasonal champions in MMA. Real sport with merit dictating advancemnt, not promoter whims. This week, however, the PFL meddled with this format bringing its integrity into quesiton. By way of background Natan Schulte and … More Is the PFL’s “Season” Format Totally Made Up?

The Questionable Legality of Knight Fighting

June 22, 2023

This weekend an event in Calgary is being promoted called “The Canadian Knightfall Championships“. Never heard of this? Basically people dressed in full armour with weapons bludgeoning each other. Have a look at the below tweet for reference. Is this legal? Let’s break things down. Like with any novel ‘combat sport’ in Canada the ‘prize … More The Questionable Legality of Knight Fighting

Study – Collective Force of Career Brain Rattling Strong Predictor of CTE

June 20, 2023

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

The Dis-Unified Rules of “Grounded” Fighters Plus Knee Strike Data

May 31, 2023

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

Data Shows 12-6 Elbows No More Dangerous Than Other Legal Strikes

May 30, 2023

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

Data – Continuing Judge Education Drastically Improves Consistency in MMA and Boxing

May 26, 2023

Interesting data was shared by Anthony Cummings, the Director of Colorado Combative Sports Commission, in a regulatory hearing this week. Anthony notes that in 2021 their commission implemented continuing education for officials. Something that is not the industry norm. Split decisions (decisions where officials disagree on who the bout winner was) were drastically reduced as … More Data – Continuing Judge Education Drastically Improves Consistency in MMA and Boxing