Contributor: Tim Bernier
There’s been a lot of news lately in the world of MMA: discussion of fighter rankings, super fights, reality shows, ratings, etc. This post is going to go in a different direction and it stems from two things. One: about a week ago I made the mistake of following a link to YouTube of a 17 year old boxer in Indonesia getting pummeled, KO’d, and ultimately, falling to the ground dead. The second was from just the other day when 25 year old professional snowmobiler Caleb Moore died after sustaining injuries from a crash during the Winter X Games in Colorado.
These are both tragic actions in sports that carry a risk of injury, and thus, a risk of death. Almost every sport has that risk. Every summer a high school football player dies after two- or –three a day practices in the heat. My question is this: if a UFC fighter dies from in-cage injuries, will the UFC as an organization survive? It’s almost inevitable that a UFC fighter will die. It will be a tragic accident, but it will probably happen. All of the commission oversight, CAT scans, and precautions taken cannot eliminate the possibility that a fighter can and will put too brutal of a beating on another whose brain just can’t take it.
My question is specifically for the UFC. They’re the big, top name. They’re the only ones the media will ever care about. A small handful of fighters have died from MMA injuries in the last decade. Most of them can be contributed to poor [see: god awful] safety precautions seen in the low levels of MMA. If a UFC fighter dies, the media will explode with coverage on it. Since its inception, UFC has been under fire for being too violent, barbaric, or disgusting. Opponents of the sport have made their opinions heard. The UFC still isn’t legal in New York, a huge sports state (whether or not the Culinary Union contributes to that is another story). But they’re finally gaining traction and acceptation in the mainstream sports culture. Dana White’s ranting that they’re the most regulated, safest sport in the world may have actually helped. How would an in-cage death affect them?
To start, the UFC will have to start damage control. I doubt they would cancel any events, as it would be seen as a weakness or that they’re scared of further injuries, providing ammo for news coverage. Numbers will drop. There is no doubt that people who were on the fence, will climb on down and back away. Many people will recognize just how violent it can be, and that will be too much for them. “How can you watch this, people can die you know” would be a phrase I would hear from any number of people in my life that don’t approve of my MMA fandom. I would assume Fox would drop from their end of their seven year commitment to MMA and the UFC, and cancel programming. Once again the UFC would be relegated to a Pay Per View only business, and the last time that happened, they were bleeding money and struggling to survive.
The NFL is under fire from huge safety concerns at the moment. A death in football would be enormously tragic, but ultimately, the NFL would survive. They’re bigger and stronger for one. A death would be labeled as an unfortunate accident, one that can probably be avoided with further rule changes and concussion related science. They would make it. The backlash against the UFC would take a different tone. Whereas violence is a secondary aspect of other sports, it can often be seen as the purpose of MMA. It will definitely be portrayed in that way. A snowmobiler had an “accident”. Whereas a fighter would be “savagely beaten to death”.
This is one concern for MMA as a sport going forward. The UFC is doing quite well at the moment. MMA has to be on the top of their game to prevent tragedies like an in-cage death from happening. But the realist in me thinks that it is only inevitable, and MMA as a sport won’t survive if it happens on a big enough stage.
-Tim can be reached @TimBernier31
Great post Tim. As fighters continue to get bigger, faster, and more athletic, it seems that it will happen at some point. However, the fact that there is no ten count on a knockdown helps a lot. That has been a major factor in boxing deaths, which I think has the closest parallel to MMA in the sports world.
I feel that the only real way I can see this happening is in huge mismatches, e.g. Chad Mendes vs. Cody McKenzie or something similar. Generally speaking, fighters are evenly matched up skillset wise and in the upper echelons of the divisions, many fights go to decisions. The only way I can see a death happening other than a freak accident is from a sustained beatdown like Teixera vs. Maldanado. Referee’s need to be trained much more rigorously in the UFC to prevent horrifying beatdowns similar to that or the Curran vs. Warren fight. The way they can make sure to prevent a death as much as possible seems to be, imo, in trained their referee’s.
I guess you could also say that a good preventative step would be a good match maker/talent scout.
Huge mismatches are over too quick for people to get killed, IMO. It is guys like Joe Warren that are really tough and can take a beating combined with negligent officiating that scare me as a fan.
I guess my bigger question would be, would MMA in general as a sport be able to survive if a death occurred on such a big stage (UFC)?
Boxing has, so it is certainly possible. I think it depends on how the death occurs, to be honest.
True, I guess the context of the hypothetical death would be a factor. I just feel that the general masses still see it as a barbaric sport, and a death in the cage would light a fire that MMA supporters wouldn’t want to deal with.
I think the sports media would run the story for about a week or two, and ultimately forget about it after one of their media darlings goes on a bad streak. I think you’re kinda underrating the national sports media’s short term memory on these kinds of things. I haven’t heard a peep over the snowmobiler’s death two days after it happened and I’d argue snowmobiling is even more of a niche sport than MMA. It would really, really suck, but the UFC would survive.
Your username is wonderful. You make a good point about the national media not caring that much, but there are groups out there actively against the UFC, so I think it could go either way.
Good piece. I really hope it doesn’t, but it will happen. Might be this year, might be in ten but I’m pretty it will. Especially with the kind of incompetent refs and irresponsible corners there are in MMA. I personally think Assault in the Ring (although there was some cheating in that one too) and Ring of Fire and the fights they’re about should be required viewing before becoming a ref, might help avoid the constant late stoppages (seriously, there’s at least one every week). Unfortunately I’m pretty sure someone will have to die before that happens and MMA learns what boxing learned the hard way.
As to whether the UFC would survive it, I think it would. Depending on how the aftermath was handled and the circonstances of the death though, the consequences could be minimal or it could really hurt the sport and put us through another “dark age of MMA”.
Pretty sure it will happen*
Assault in the Ring is hard to watch, but for refs I agree it should be required viewing. Late stoppages are a serious issue that need to be addressed.
What about a death if it happened on free TV vs one that happened on PPV? Would the backlash be bigger because more people saw it?
What rule changes could forced upon the sport if a death occurred?
But the UFC’s survival of such an event really does depend on how they handle it. If they come right out with it during or immediately after an event, I think they would be able to weather the shit storm that would come their way.