Eye injuries

One study of eye injuries recorded in post-match physician reports, and eye-area injuries counted in a bare-knuckle surveillance study.

Research information, not medical advice. This page does not diagnose, screen or clear anyone to compete.

The library holds one study focused on eye injuries. It uses post-match physician reports from boxing and MMA matches in one U.S. state. A second source, on bare-knuckle bouts, counts orbital fractures and bruising around the eye among other injuries.

What the sources report

  1. Ocular injuries in competitive combat sports in Texas

    Akanno et al., 2025. BMJ Open.

    Article type
    Retrospective case-control study
    Studied
    3,070 participants in Texas combat-sport event records.
    Status
    Published in a peer-reviewed journal
    • Post-match physician reports for 3,070 fighters in Texas matches from January 2019 to January 2022 were reviewed.
    • Ocular injury rates were 9.7 per 100 matches in boxing and 12.2 per 100 matches in MMA. Too few kickboxing and Muay Thai matches were available to calculate rates.
    • Ocular injury was associated with losing the match in boxing but not in MMA.

    Full recordDOI 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-098197

  2. Epidemiology of professional bare-knuckle fighting injuries

    Muzzi et al., 2022. The Physician and Sportsmedicine.

    Article type
    Observational injury surveillance
    Studied
    141 sanctioned bare-knuckle bouts; 282 fighter exposures.
    Status
    Published in a peer-reviewed journal

    This study recorded 2 orbital fractures and 8 periorbital hematomas among 282 fighter exposures. Both orbital fractures led to hospital transfer.

    • 141 state-sanctioned professional bare-knuckle bouts held from June 2018 to November 2020 were observed. Of 282 fighters, 105 (36.6%) sustained at least one injury.
    • Lacerations were the most common injury: 98 were recorded, 80 of them facial. 17 fractures were recorded, including 8 hand fractures.

    Full recordDOI 10.1080/00913847.2021.1955604

Limits of this evidence

  • The eye-injury study covers one state over three years and relies on what was written in post-match reports.
  • Too few kickboxing and Muay Thai matches were available for the study to report rates in those sports.
  • Neither source follows fighters after the event, so later vision outcomes are not reported.

Fight Medicine Research Institute checked each source’s details against PubMed, Crossref, Europe PMC or the publisher. It has not carried out a formal critical appraisal of each paper.