Doctors are worried a combat sport called slap fighting, watched by millions and gaining in popularity, may be causing brain damage. A new study found that more than half of the participants had visible signs of concussion. Many had signs of impaired movement following a hit or had a vacant stare.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn9dxg0w7vzo
49 Comments
I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/fullarticle/2823891?guestAccessKey=777babad-98e5-4f04-86f3-488c1185312b&utm_source=for_the_media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=091824
From the linked article:
Doctors are worried a combat sport called slap fighting, watched by millions online and gaining in popularity, is causing serious brain damage.
Competitors face off and take turns to deliver bare, full-force, open-handed strikes to the cheek.
To assess the possible harm, medics screened videos of tournaments and have now written a warning letter in a leading journal, JAMA Surgery, about their findings.
Unlike boxing, no head gear is allowed and defenders cannot duck to avoid blows. Even flinching is banned.
Lead authors of the medical study, Dr Raj Swaroop Lavadi and Dr Nitin Agarwal, say while slap fighting “might be entertaining to watch”, as medical professionals, “we found some aspects of the competitions to be quite concerning”.
According to their analysis of 78 fights between 56 contestants and involving 333 slaps:
– more than half of the participants had visible signs of concussion
– many had signs of impaired movement following a hit or had a blank or vacant stare
– some were knocked down had some trouble getting back up
I’ve watched this before and it’s more open hand punching then slapping, it looks brutal.
Yes, repeated blows to the head cause brain injury.
Those who cheer it on are happy to reduce humans to animals. The participants are stock to bet on until they break. It’s gross really.
Its only a matter of time when we’re back to colloseum style death match fights. Slap fighting is easily the dumbest “sport” of all time. Just two muscle dummies giving each other even more brain damage.
Are they controlling for the obvious preexisting condition?
The Wolverine owns this sport
That shits brutal. I’ve watched one “match”. never again
This is darwinism at work
Unsurprising. They can generate a lot of power in these strikes despite them being open-handed.
On the face of it you’d expect MMA or boxing to be much worse but ultimately it’s pretty rare for fighters to eat flush shots to the jaw without rolling with it, deflecting it etc.
Brain damage is the ticket of entry isn’t it?
We know that blows to the head in boxing causes brain damage, why would this be any different?
No need for additional studies to tell us that blows to the head causes brain damage when we already know that blows to the head causes brain damage.
The first time I saw this new “sport”, my immediate thought was “idiots”.
This can’t honestly be a surprise to anyone… right?
Slow motion often shows them using the heel of their hands hitting the ear/temple area. Seeing these “sportsmen” leaves me with not much nice to say.
Of course it causes brain damage. The sport itself also attracts people who already have brain damage. It’s like a brain damage multiplier.
Luckily, the brains being damaged were not in the upper percentile from the start.
Err, 100% of the participants and spectators of this sport are obviously suffering some sort of brain deficiency, even before any damage resulting from this moronic activity.
Its no coincidence that its hugely popular in russia and other similar medieval orc gatherings pretending to be countries.
It seems common sense that this causes brain damage. The more interesting thing is what’s going on in the brains of people enjoying the spectacle.
It’s not a sport, it’s two guys trying to give each other brain damage. Doctors point out the obvious.
Gaining in popularity? I see you Dana
Pretty sure you have to have brain damage before you start this ‘sport’. Either participating or watching
I’m shocked. Shocked I say.
They hit each other hard asf. This isnt surprising at all.
Wow! Another perfect sport ruined by you science nerds!
I thought it actually struggled for viewers. There are rumours Dana White is fiddling the figures. That’s because it’s terrible and should never be considered a sport.
Saw one where they also each other on the butt. That should be safer
Send this here https://www.reddit.com/r/idiocracy/s/lzSRNrZEmZ
It’s not entertaining at all, I don’t get the appeal. I’d rather watch wordstar. Why would I want to watch people slap each other? There’s zero athleticism, which is what gives sports its entertainment value.
Atleast with boxing and mma you’re encouraged to dodge, this is just a full on CTE speed run
I stumbled across this “sport” on YouTube and found it to be the dumbest thing I’ve seen. Competitive concussion creation. At least in boxing you try to avoid getting hit…
May? I think the people that do this may already have brain damage.
Dana White has always been a massive dirtbag, but him cashing in on this should be a criminal offense.
The more brain dead they are maybe the faster they’ll go away and we won’t have to see this again any moron that would participate in this deserves whatever they get. Once they allowed MMA on TV early enough for children to see on a regular basis I knew we were in big trouble. At least wrestling was fake and we all knew that. I firmly believe the kids think the video games are real too.
Brought to you by the people that produce other knockout sports. What do you expect?
Survival of the fittest. Let’s not waste resources trying to prevent this
Dumbest sport, if you can call it that
I’m not sure that’s the correct direction of causality
Don’t worry, brain dmg is one of the conditions you need to have to want to play this in the first place. Nothing of value will be lost.
Don’t tell this doctors about mma.
We’re hurtling towards “Ow, My Balls!” being an actual show on TV. Idiocracy really is becoming a documentary, huh?
It definitely causes brain damage. Not might
I think anyone interested in either spectating, or participating, probably already suffers from some kind of cognitive impairment.
“Slap fighting was never my friend” – Dana White
You mean an action where people regularly take blows to the face is causing brain damage?? I am shocked, shocked I tell you.
Have they really done their homework on this?
I’m skeptical that a sport involving taking unprotected blows to the head could cause brain damage. Science, schmience.
I think they know the risks.
The brain damage happened before participating.
Stuff like this reminds me of Carlin’s injunction about the average person
Wait *millions*?!?
C’mon ya’ll, do better
It’s gaining in popularity? I thought the ratings were awful?