Is MMA safer than boxing?

[Marchegiano]

Clearly, grabassing is not as dangerous as fighting.

[Blond Beast]

Remember that sport science show? Boxing punches landed with about the same force as mma gloves if I remember? Boxing your hands are heavily taped, and we have all seen the size of the taped knuckles on some guys. The tape and glove also helps support the wrist in boxing. There never going to be as many strikes to the head in an mma fight as the worst boxing match. Not even close. In the same show a 240lb rugby player ( sometimes they have light shoulder padding these days ) couldn’t deliver as much force as a 180lb cornerback in football pads. I played both sports. The hits in rugby cannot compare to the hits in football. The pads and helmets are weapons. The ball also moves fast in rugby. In football like a kick off a whole team can take a long run at a guy and no fear of them pitching the ball away. If they want to reduce concussions in football they need to go back to leather helmets or something. The style of play would change for sure. But in rugby all exposed, I never saw %1 of the head to head shots as in football. Getting stomped or raked with cleats to the head is nothing compared to being blindsided by a crown of a helmet in the ear hole.

[baroidi]

MMA has fewer rounds and there are more ways to end a fight early. Submissions at worst can snap a limb, but it will heal. Boxers take shots to the head for 12 rnds and if it's ended early it s via knockout. Brain damage is permanent. And boxers are much harder punchers than MMA fighters. Although there was a recent death in BKFC, bare knuckle boxing is probably safer than Boxing, far fewer rounds and fights end a lot via cuts. Plus most of these Bare knuckle fighters are former MMA fighters looking for a few more pay days, not big punchers.

[Motofan]

MMA is safer because there aren’t 12 rounds of getting hit in the face over and over and over causing brain swelling in MMA. Lots of times it’s one mistake and out cold. One brutal shot is easier to recover from than dozens.

[TMLT87]

MMA is safer because there aren’t 12 rounds of getting hit in the face over and over and over causing brain swelling in MMA. Lots of times it’s one mistake and out cold. One brutal shot is easier to recover from than dozens.

Yep thats exactly it. Boxing is set up so someone can take prolonged head trauma for round after round without being stopped.

Fury/Wilder 3 is a good example. Wilder was dropped in the third round, at that point only 30 punches had been landed on him, in MMA Fury probably ends it right there. But instead Wilder went on to the 11th, 30+ minutes of being hit, floored multiple times and hit about 5x as much as he had been at the point of the first knockdown.

[GrandpaBernard]

Boxing punishment isn’t as forgiving

A boxing loss is way more damaging than a mma loss

getting the brain and body broken down no good

[TMLT87]

I just think it’s so clear, like way too clear ignore or try to deny it, that boxing is more dangerous. It’s literally a lethal sport. Its athletes actually die at a higher rate than any other combat/contact sport. Countless boxers literally die in the ring. It’s also a sport that despite the relatively high risk of death, or serious brain injury from it, spectators are still very hard on the combatants. When a boxer quits due to sustaining too much punishment, it is frowned upon by spectators and writers. Meanwhile, some boxers who take a ton of punishment and have a no-quit mentality, seem to get praised by fans for entertaining them by risking their life. Then there are groups of fans who are not consistent with what they like to see in a boxer. For example Wilder is an all out brawler with power, poor skills, who is not very good defensively. People loved Arturo Gatti for this, but Wilder does not get the same pass.

NFL? 1 in-game death in 100+ years.

UFC, 0 deaths since 1993, almost 30 years now.

MMA as a whole, 7 deaths, since its inception in 1985 (from what I have gathered).

Boxing is all around just a brutal sport. If you look at it from the outside looking in, and gather all the information from it, look at all the fan feedback for fighters, it’s actually an awful sport. Boxing is a terrible sport if you really think about it.

I think boxing benefits from having been so long term entrenched in society. All that history and tradition plus being in the olympics etc means it gets more of a pass for the really ****ed up death/long term serious injury rate. MMA in contrast was viewed as barbaric by a lot of the mainstream as recently as like the early 2010s, if it had been killing people and turning people into vegetables yearly like boxing does it would have been completely banned most likely.

[elfag]

the fans only see the televised fights. we dont see the closed off gym wars. its hard to say where someone got their brain damage from. if it was fight night or the gym wars.

Thing about the gym wars they going right back at it the next day. after any 12 round fight they are getting a rest for a long time and any injury even more time.

[Noelanthony]

I am going to get this out of the way now: Yes, I know. Both sports are dangerous, both can cause serious harm, and both can cause brain issues.

But the biggest takeaway I get from MMA fights is not the kicks or the wrestling/submissions, it’s the way most punches are thrown.

Some MMA fighters like to throw this out there, “we use smaller gloves unlike boxing and its pillows.”

1. If you have been punched by someone with boxing gloves, you know they are not “pillows”. They actually hurt a lot.

2. Boxing gloves protect a fighter’s hands, which enables them to use greater punch technique and minimize soreness. It also enables a fighter to throw more and throw harder due to their being little to no worries of them injuring their hands (it happens, but rare)

3. MMA’s small gloves benefit fighters for safety reasons: They (most of them) have to throw punches awkwardly. Especially in ground and pounds. Therefore, MMA fighters really can’t go “all out” with their punches for a sustained amount of rounds.

4. UFC has had 0 deaths in the ring. Pro MMA has had 7 deaths.

5. In the span of UFC’s founding year in 1993, to present, there have been 39 deaths in boxing. I am not even including the survival rate of brain damage in boxers. Those boxers who live after brain bleeds or brain damage, will never recover 100%. See Magomed Abdusalamov and Adonis Stevenson for example.

6. MMA fighters are not blind, they see boxers get paid a ton, and they get peanuts. If boxing is so much easier and less tough, why not make the “easy” money? MMA fighters with a name and fanbase can get a nice payday in boxing. So why not do it? They are pillow gloves, it won’t hurt, right?

Bottom line is, MMA is more “difficult” because it’s a mix of attacks that you have to defend against. In boxing, just look out for punches. I will give MMA the win there.

However, boxing is more “dangerous”. Boxing has a higher risk of brain damage and death from injuries sustained in a boxing match.

Top UFC fighters like McGregor (21-3 at the time) and Askren (19-2), learned the hard way what getting hit with pillow gloves felt like. Holly Holm went to UFC from boxing and slaughtered one of UFC’s top sellers, Ronda Rousey (12-0). Even while using the less protective MMA gloves.

I don’t know when it became cool to say MMA is more dangerous than boxing, and that it’s “real fighting” compared to boxing.

MMA is safer and statistics corroborate that. They do not take the concussive punches to the brain that boxers do both in camp and in the fight and for a sustained time of 36 minutes as opposed to 25 minutes for MMA. Having said that if you cherish your ears MMA is not the sport for you