# Help wanted ref deaths in MMA in US



## Tez3 (Mar 12, 2007)

A famous ex boxer over here, Barry McGuigan has been slating MMA and the UFC in particular over here in the press and the TV. He has stated that it's a brutal sport and there has been at least 10 deaths since 1994 in MMA in the States. We are planning a public rebuttal to this statement among others he has made and need statistics on deaths etc in MMA (as far as we are aware there has only been one, an American who ignored medical advice and went abroad to fight) If you have any details and facts that can help ( I know how good everyone on this forum is!) can you post up please. It will be very much appreciated as we want to keep MMA in this country and not have it banned because of ignorant rants.


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## Andrew Green (Mar 12, 2007)

http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/FOXSportsMMA/2006/10/11/MMAs_alleged_brutality_and_more



> Fact: There has never been a death or crippling injury in a commission-sanctioned show in North America.
> 
> Fact: The worst injury to occur in the UFC since Zuffa LLC bought the company was Tim Sylvia's broken arm.
> 
> Fact: MMA fighters rarely end up with the long-term head trauma associated with boxers, because you can only throw so many punches with MMA gloves.




http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2006/Aug-20-Sun-2006/news/9034699.html



> "We only have one verified death, but there isn't a fair sample size. The sport's only been around for 12, 15 years. I just hope the sport is really entrenched when it does happen, because will there ever be hell to pay when that happens."



The only death was Douglas Dedge in 1998:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Dedge


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## Odin (Mar 12, 2007)

i heard about the comments he made..tsk tsk i thought better of him.

Deaths in MMA? is Barry joking right? you do realise Barry was responsable for the death of a boxer called Young Ali in the ring?? i remember it becasue i was a fan of Barry.

I think he's just trying to convince people to take more of an interest in boxing, he knows MMA is stealing a lot of the lime light off boxing.

As far as I know theres only been the one death.

btw the UFC website has Micheal Bispings comments on what was written.


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## Tez3 (Mar 12, 2007)

Thank you for the replies! Very useful. A frined Shane emailed Barry asking about his comments and this is the reply :

From : Classic Management Limited 
Reply-To : 
Sent : 12 March 2007 11:44:42 
To : 
Subject : FW: MMA 


Dear Shane,

Thank you for your recent email and the article regarding Victor Burgos. 

I am sorry to hear you thought my article was a tirade against UFC. You obviously missed Dana White's comments recently where he dissed boxing and talked about the sport in a derogatory way. 

The unfortunate scenario with Mr Burgos reflects the sad but thankfully rare occasions in boxing where things do go wrong. Having read through many different reports on UFC/MMA or NHB, whatever you prefer to call it, it is fair to assume that there have been at least ten deaths since it started in 1994 and bearing in mind it predominantly takes place in the USA that is a staggering figure. I do not need to go into details in relation to the medical tests and requirements for professional boxing but suffice to say that MMA does not compare.

Thank you for reading my column.

Your sincerely,

Barry McGuigan


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## Andrew Green (Mar 12, 2007)

> it is fair to assume that there have been at least ten deaths since it started in 1994



He may have a future in politics


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## Shotgun Buddha (Mar 14, 2007)

Tez3 said:


> A famous ex boxer over here, Barry McGuigan has been slating MMA and the UFC in particular over here in the press and the TV. He has stated that it's a brutal sport and there has been at least 10 deaths since 1994 in MMA in the States. We are planning a public rebuttal to this statement among others he has made and need statistics on deaths etc in MMA (as far as we are aware there has only been one, an American who ignored medical advice and went abroad to fight) If you have any details and facts that can help ( I know how good everyone on this forum is!) can you post up please. It will be very much appreciated as we want to keep MMA in this country and not have it banned because of ignorant rants.


 
Yeah, saw that idiots article. Best thing to do would be run a comparison between number of deaths in boxing, and number of deaths in MMA that have occured since 1994.
If you feel like figthing particularly dirty you could point out his comments are somewhat ironic considering he himself is repsonsible for the death of another boxer.
However, despite the fact the idiot clearly deserves it, that would probably give off the wrong impression of the MMA community, its a tad unprofessional.
In this case the facts alone should be enough of a rebuttal, and perhaps a comment that its always best to do some research before stating a fact.


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## Dave_T_L_W (Mar 20, 2007)

I posted your topic on a mma forum on facebook and got quite a few responces cant be bothered to post them all as they are mostly opinions but here are the key posts;

the reason why boxing is so much more dangerous, and worse over the long run than MMA is because of the 10 count after a knock down. The fact that after you have been stunned or knocked down during a fight you have the oppurtunity to get back up when that is impossible in MMA. This causes serious mental problems for boxers, who have a significantly higher risk of being seriously hurt during a fight because of how much more of a beating their brains take. Boxing chews up athletes and spits them out. A broken arm or getting choked out during a fight is a lot better than having brain damage for the rest of your life.
According to wiki Douglas Dedge is the only comfirmed MMA death.
Also according to wiki is was in 1998 and was in the Ukraine, he also may have had a pre-existing medical condition and was not cleared to fight in the US or Japan.
Bill O'Reilly even tried to spit some ignorant statistic about concussions sustained in MMA outnumbering those in boxing, but couldn't back it up. Plus, he didn't say anything about sanctioned and unsanctioned matches, nor did he mention any specific organizations. So basically, he's full of **** and was just trying to win an arguement.
There have been ZERO deaths in U.S. sanctioned MMA. Period.
In MMA/NHB you get knocked out and you're done - in boxing you just receive repeated blows to the head until you literally turn to jellow... 15 rounds of about 20 punches each = brain death...
There is no standing 8 count & 3 knock downs in a round rule. I personally think the fighters in MMA know when they can't compete at that top level & retire with dignity, unlike some boxers (George Foreman).
I used this article in an informative speech I did at my school on MMA when I addressed the myth of injuries in sanctioned MMA. Pretty well done, although not 100% conclusive, it does lay out the facts.

http://www.jssm.org/combat/1/18/v5combat-18.pdf  And the fact that it was conducted by doctors at Johns Hopkins makes it nice and credible
Hope some of this helps, sorry i am supposed to be working so i didnt edit it very well. I think the paper at the end could be quite useful. How are you going to go about the responce to his article??

Keep us updated

Dave


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## Jesus_Sandals (Mar 28, 2007)

Compare deaths and Injuries from MMA to injuries in other sports. There is alot more injuries in collage football than there is in MMA.


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