Does MMA Make You Stupid?

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Stephan Kesting

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I think we're going to have an epidemic of brain-injured fighters and giant class action lawsuits against the UFC.

I've just published a rather large article about the state of brain damage in MMA. It draws on research from boxing, football and even soccer to make the case that MMA is much more dangerous than us long-time fans would care to admit

I wish I had a solution, but the first step is always to get out of denial and face the problem head on...

==> http://www.grapplearts.com/Blog/2013/09/does-mma-make-you-stupid/

Cheers
Stephan Kesting
Grapplearts.com
 
Much respect Mr. Kesting. This is a very serious topic and one which deserves to be in the lime light as much as possible. Pugilistic dementia can be crippling.

One of many reason's why these fighters should be paid far more than they are. They're putting their lives on the line to give us something to watch while making organizations like the UFC mega bucks.

Socially, mentally, physically taking the kinds of blows these athletes do has tremendous repercussions down the road.
 
Dr Benjamin even used fan favorite Chuck Liddell as an example, saying, “You could beat that man with a baseball bat, and he wasn’t going anywhere.
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Sounds like the doctor has worse brain damage than Liddell.

Contrary to his popular image, Liddell wasn't in that many firefights during his career prime.
 
I thought this thread was going to be just about watching it, in which case I would answer yes with myself as empirical evidence
 
Interesting...
Good article, but compared to boxing or football, even soccer, MMA seems like the safest sport of the bunch. Pro wrestling should also be considered in this category, and the drug abusing lifestyle is baffling to many.
 
MMA doesn't make you stupid. Reading Sherdog too long, however...


EDIT: made me eat my words quickly! Well written and a good read, thanks for posting that. It's true that we often crave the wild brawls and big KOs MMA can deliver without considering the potential consequences to the competitors. Personally I'm a big fan of Struve, because he tries so hard and usually he finishes or is finished (often by starching). In recent times I've started to worry a lot for him, being so young but having been KO'd so many times.
 
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countswagula said:
I thought this thread was going to be just about watching it, in which case I would answer yes with myself as empirical evidence
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...same. I was going to say no to watching the sport but I think being on sherdog does have a detrimental effect on peoples IQ :icon_lol:
 
This is a very good analysis of the state of knowledge surrounding brain damage in MMA.

As a psychology student and a rabid MMA fan I've found it harder and harder to justify my love of MMA as I learn more about brain damage and associated dementia. I was even going to do my Masters on this exact topic. I wrote a (much shorter) commentary on brain damage in MMA on my blog a while ago:
http://mmanewzealand.blogspot.co.nz/2013/01/tko-retirement-part-2.html

Three things I will say,
1) there are very few studies out there looking at MMA fighters so it's legitimately hard to say how bad brain damage is in MMA.

2) Part of the reason it's so hard to measure is because of the massive variation in brain impacts, how hard does someone train, spar, fight, for how long?, what happens in their fights? Two people who have had 20 MMA fights have usually had a massively different amount of head impacts.

3) Because of the lack of knowledge about brain damage in MMA there will never be a lawsuit from the fighters against the UFC, the football issue was that their employers knew how bad a concussion is and didn't tell the players, because MMA has very few studies it would be hard to accuse the UFC of knowing the damage MMA fighters suffer.

Finally, a lot of fighters seem to have a relatively good idea of the damage they may incur and do it anyway. Gary Goodridge said himself he would do it all again even though he's now on a journey through hell with dementia.
 
What about studies from other combat sports? Like Muay Thai, some pros have over 200 fights under their belt and seem pretty coherent.
 
While there is no evidence that MMA makes fighters stupid, there is a strong correlation between stupidity and fight fans.
 
It depends on the fighters styles, guys like Cruz, Anderson, GSP, Maia, Jones take very little damage so they would be far less likely to suffer the consequences later in life. Than there's guys like struve and schaub who'll probably suffer later on due to the kos they've suffered. But in the end these guys choose this career path, more or less knowing that they can suffer severe injuries.
 
I don't think MMA has been around long enough to know exactly how dangerous the long term consequences are. It definitely can't be good for you, but it remains to be seen what kind of damage some of these fighters are taking on themselves.

"MMA is safer than boxing" is an oft repeated clich
 
tenniswhiz said:
I don't think MMA has been around long enough to know exactly how dangerous the long term consequences are. It definitely can't be good for you, but it remains to be seen what kind of damage some of these fighters are taking on themselves.

"MMA is safer than boxing" is an oft repeated clich
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Yes that's possible. But the same sort of injuries and strains can occur in other sports as well in the long run. That's a part of life.

I support higher fighter pay at least!
 
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