News UFC Mouthguards can now track heart rates

[Mohawk Banditó]

Can their cups measure girth too?

I'm gonna need them to hook up some electrodes to the inside of the cups so I can know which fighters start pitching tents mid fight.

Always bet on the guy who gets a brawling boner

 

[humdizzle]

Can their cups measure girth too?

 

[Dorkman]

I think it's a pretty neat addition. Give you a bit of a view inside the fighters head how they might be reacting mentally to whats going on.

 

[TheMadHatter]

I wouldnt be ok with it if the corners had access to this information during the fight. It definitely makes it easier to tell who is gassed, or more tired. kind of like a stamina bar in video games.

 

[GrantB13]

So now will fighters get fined for throwing their mouth guard into the crowd after a victory since they have special tech in them? And do the UFC provide mouth guards? I always assumed it was the teams.

 

[Clark Rogers]

The live audience being able to see fighters’ heart rate monitoring in real time would be incredibly interesting but at the same time I could see why athletes might prefer to keep this data close to the chest (no pun intended). From a legal privacy stand point, it still constitutes personal health information.

As far as strategy goes, it also gives away part of a fighter’s game. “Poker face” is a critical part or the arsenal, Hiding or playing off how hurt, tired or scared you are. knowing before the first round, who is freaked out and who’s cool as a cumber. Having a little cardio counter beside each name on the screen would be very cool, but I don’t see this going further than a fighter’s medical file unless consent is given to share it.

The privacy/PHI angle was the first I thought of here. Wonder if the fighters had to sign a release, or if they were just forced to do this, federal privacy protection laws be damned?