A Fatal Flaw: Death and Logic in MMA

Not long ago, I had two identical conversations with two completely different people, neither of whom are MMA fans. Both independently brought up a recent tragedy, the death of an MMA fighter following a professional bout in South Carolina on June 28, 2010.

I rarely discuss MMA with people who aren’t fans; rather, they tend to bring it up, knowing I am either a fan or a freelance writer for the sport. For those who dislike MMA, the topic of the sport’s “mindless brutality” inevitably surfaces indignantly or triumphantly to my frustrated weariness. As if one must shamefully acknowledge that indeed, the spirit is weak and it is only our basest instincts that draw us to the sport. As if we fight fans haven’t heard it all before. Well, I’m tired of rolling my eyes. I rolled up my sleeves and decided to expose the fraudulence and hypocrisy of such claims. It took me all of about five minutes of research, by the way.

For those neutral to the sport, they cite death or brutality with evident fascination. No doubt, the relative large amount of media attention drawn to the so far circumstantial and tragic early death is detrimental to the sport. The media could just as well focus on, for example, the charitable work undertaken by the UFC on behalf of the Intrepid Fallen Heroes fund, set up to benefit the families of American soldiers who’ve died or been injured in the defense of their nation.

While tragic, there is no doubt in my mind that a death related to MMA is inevitable and unavoidable. Currently the death of Michael Kirkham (see above) is only circumstantially related to his last bout. Of course, my sincere condolences go out to his family and friends.

MMA is a professional sport which attracts some of the best athletes in the world. Even NFL players like Herschel Walker attest to the incredible endurance and athleticism necessarily required even to train, let alone compete in the sport. MMA requires severe mental discipline (there is no “off-season” to rest), an incredibly high level of cardiovascular endurance – both aerobic and anaerobic – as well as an elite skill level acquired in at least two or three of dozens of martial arts disciplines; usually a combination of a grappling and striking. While bouts often result in injuries, both superficial or not, MMA is sanctioned in all but a tiny minority of states and provinces in North America, with universal rules, ringside doctors, judges, referees, paramedics in attendance, ambulances on call, etc. Just like any professional sport.

MMA has its differences. Arguably, MMA requires a level of fitness exceeded only by professional cyclists or cross-country skiers, whose fitness is legendary. Clearly it is a sport which, brutality aside, must be taken extremely seriously at the higher levels, if even only for the level of dedication required to keep one’s head above water.

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In over twenty years of competition, only a handful of MMA athletes have suffered a career-ending injury in the ring or cage. Not one has died in professional competition where a doctor or coroner has been able to definitively link death to injuries sustained in competition. This takes into account a pool of currently thousands of fighters, and over the years and across the world, easily tens of thousands.

By comparison, let us compare another highly competitive, full-contact and definitively brutal sport: as recently as 2009, 17-year-old Andrew Swank died of a head injury sustained in a football game. In fact, since 2000, 22 deaths have been recorded as a direct result of injury sustained from playing football. Oddly, no one has ever cited any such fact to me in conversation, although I am an NFL fan.

Suffice it to say, these are not only adults, but teenagers who can only compete with the permission of parents or legal guardians. In MMA, by striking contrast, only adults currently compete at the professional level with complete freedom of choice. Yet death remains nonexistent. Nevertheless, a single death merely linked to MMA vastly eclipses a seemingly far more disturbing trend – and lord knows how many die at the college level, or in rugby, hockey or any other professional sport involving large individuals purposefully colliding in the interest of competition.

Is there a relatively larger proportion of high school players than MMA practicioners? Probably. But the flip side of the coin is the immensely greater amount of media attention paid to a possible death as the result of an MMA match (the first that may be recorded since MMA was first sanctioned in the early ‘90s). How many children have died since 1990 playing contact sports under the auspices of coaches, parents and teachers? Where is the media spotlight there?

I’m not even going to begin with deaths occurring as a result of skiing, skateboarding, cycling or snowboarding. I don’t think we need to ban dangerous sports. We must simply allow for the fact that all sports are inherently dangerous. Heck,

how many people died from golf balls to the head in the last ten years? Google “golf ball death” if you want the inside scoop on the latest small, white and dimpled sports-related slayer stalking the nation.

So, with just a couple of simple examples, it is clear that focusing the media spotlight on a possible death in MMA is just more ludicrous hyperbole leveled at a safe, highly competitive and extremely high-functioning sport. Drawing any conclusions about the relative “danger” of the sport is silly and specious, if we simply scratch the surface of deaths in any other given sport.

Plus, if we consider the fact that the best athletes – and adults – in the world consciously and willingly apply themselves to a discipline statistically far less dangerous than American high school football, yet far more physically demanding, the supposed danger if the sport diminishes to sheer pointlessness.

The simple fact is, death is an exceedingly unlikely possibility in any contact sport. It can happen. It does happen, in every which sport but MMA so far. It will happen in MMA. But to foolishly and singularly accuse MMA of being dangerous without considering the whole of professional (and amateur) sports is to construct and viciously beat down a straw man of gargantuan proportion.

By Roy Kok
ProFighting-fans.com MMA Staff Writer