(Ed Mulholland/ESPN.com)
If you watch the two sports on TV, you’d conclude that boxing is kinder. The boxing gloves, padded and thick, produce a softer and more cushioned impact. In boxing, only the fists are allowed to crush the enemy. In mixed-martial arts (MMA), it’s every hard-boned corner of your body that you can use to inflict pain: sharp elbows waiting to redden the face, the knee ready to attack the abdomen, the legs and feet springing in action to strike.
My wife Jasmin abhors the brutality of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). While she watches Manny Pacquiao fights (who doesn’t?) and while she doesn’t cover her eyes and grimace when boxers collide, it’s different with UFC as she runs away as if she’s allergic to me.
Blood gushing off one’s cheeks. Two men grappling on the floor like male lovers. A devastating knee to injure the ribs. More red liquid spouting out of the mouth. Open cuts near the eyelids. All these absolutely turn off Jasmin.
Thus, the conclusion: MMA is harsher, rougher and more vicious than boxing, right? Not necessarily.
Last Monday, while browsing Google News, this headline news greeted me with shock: Australian boxer dies in bout against Filipino.
Braydon Smith, previously undefeated in 12 bouts, fought John Vincent Moralde in Australia last Saturday. Their fight extended all the way to 10 rounds with the Davao City native winning via decision. At fight’s end, Smith’s face was bruised but he never showed any signs of major physical concerns. Only when he reached the locker room 90 minutes after the fight did he collapse. He was comatose for two days before he passed away last Monday.
Braydon Smith with Moralde after their bout
Shocking. Painful. Horrifying. For how can a 23-year-old leave this world so soon? This, of course, was not the first death in boxing. There have been dozens, maybe over a hundred, of similar cases before.
And so, I repeat the query: Boxing or MMA? I’m a huge fan of both combat sports, having watched dozens of ALA Promotions fights and, three times, Pacquiao himself in person; I’ve also witnessed a slew of MMA clashes (the URCC promotions — which, sadly, have been discontinued in Cebu) and, last year, the One Fighting Championship (One FC) extravaganza inside the MOA Arena. On TV, though I haven’t been much of a boxing follower (apart from our Pinoys) lately, I rarely miss a UFC telecast.
My conclusion? I always thought MMA was more brutal. It’s full contact and ruthless, employing dozens of primitive and ferocious moves. In one URCC event at the J Centre Mall a few years ago, I’ll never forget the spinning back-fist employed by one fighter; as soon as it connected to the head, the opponent fell lifeless, arms and shoulders collapsing to the floor. It was split-second fast, cruel and hurtful.
But you know what? It was that … fast. It ended quick. Like many an ending in UFC, once a fighter is down and out, the referee jumps in to stop the contest. No extra seconds of repeated pounding are added to the damage — unlike boxing.
“What’s more violent than boxing? You and I stand in front of each other for 12 rounds and my goal is to hit you so hard in the face that I knock you unconscious,” said UFC’s Dana White in an interview. “In the UFC you and I can fight and I can beat you and win and never punch you in the head once. We can go right to the ground, start grappling and pull off a submission. It’s not 25, 30 minutes of blows to the head non-stop.”
Dana White, obviously, is biased in favor of MMA over boxing. (He’s amassed his $300 million net worth from the sport.) But he has a point. As brutal as the UFC looks, the stoppage is instantaneous.
In Askmen.com, an article by Jose Espinoza tackles the same debate in his piece, “Which is more dangerous: Boxing or MMA?” He wrote: “There is a common belief that MMA is a barbaric sport. The biggest argument used to condemn it is the position that the fights are excessively violent and dangerous. It has been labeled as human cock-fighting by politicians.”
