Version of recordOriginal research
Safety in Mixed Martial Arts
A 7-Year Review of Cancelled MMA Bouts in Calgary, Alberta, During the Pre-bout Medical Examination Period
Gwynn Curran-Sills. 2018. Sports Medicine - Open.
Published in Sports Medicine - Open, a peer-reviewed journal
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-018-0119-2
Read the full text at PubMed CentralPDF filesPubMed 29330780
The medical question
Why are MMA bouts cancelled at the pre-bout medical examination, and what does that show about medical screening before competition?
The Fight Medicine Research Institute uses this evidence to frame questions about pre-bout medical screening, required head imaging and the suspensions that follow a failed examination. The records come from one municipal commission over seven years, which determines which questions it can inform.
Summary
In seven years of commission records from Calgary, 21 of 390 MMA bouts (5.4%) were cancelled at the pre-bout medical examination, most often because required head imaging was missing or abnormal.
What the work reports
- The author reviewed the Calgary Combative Sports Commission’s pre-bout examination records, and the medical records athletes submitted, for professional and amateur MMA events held in Calgary from January 2010 to December 2016. The examination took place the day before the event, with the weigh-in. Athletes who did not meet the medical requirements had their bouts cancelled and were suspended.
- 21 of 390 bouts (5.4%) were cancelled, involving 22 athletes and 25 reasons. The reasons were failure to obtain required neuroimaging (7), abnormal neuroimaging (6), incomplete routine screening tests (4), exceeding the maximum weight difference between the two athletes (4), injury before the bout (2), dehydration (1) and ECG abnormalities (1). One of the six promotional organizations had 7 of its 11 bouts cancelled.
- The six abnormal scans showed post-traumatic gliosis, findings consistent with microhemorrhage, a chronic orbital fracture in two athletes, a lacunar infarct and one unspecified MRI abnormality. The author recommends guidelines on neuroimaging before and after bouts, industry-wide minimum medical screening standards, weight monitoring over time, the development of competent ringside physician groups, and active commission oversight of matchmaking.
Limits to keep in mind
- The records come from one municipal commission, and the article notes that medical requirements vary widely between commissions.
- Before 2014 the commission kept its records for only one year after an event. The author could not confirm that every cancelled bout was captured, or determine how many athletes had neuroimaging.
- Bouts that fell through during matchmaking, before the pre-bout examination, are not counted.
- There was no formal definition of dehydration or of an injury that warranted cancellation. Both were left to the ringside physician’s judgement.
Source issues recorded
- The publisher’s Crossref deposit dates the issue December 2018. Europe PMC dates the same issue January 2018.
Publication status and notices
Published in Sports Medicine - Open, a peer-reviewed journal. Original research article in Sports Medicine - Open.
Form of this work: Version of record. The version of record is the final article as issued by its publisher.
No correction or retraction notice was found in Crossref or Europe PMC when this record was checked.
Fight Medicine Research Institute contribution
Fight Medicine Research Institute selected and catalogued this study, prepared an original research summary, verified its bibliographic details, and maintains the associated citation record.
PDF files
- Open the record sheet (PDF): Safety in mixed martial arts
- Full text at PubMed Central: Safety in mixed martial arts
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Article details
- Relationship
- External research catalogued by the Fight Medicine Research Institute. The original authors, journal and DOI are unchanged.
- Published online
- 12 January 2018
- Issue date
- December 2018, volume 4, issue 1
- Repository date
- 12 January 2018 (Europe PMC first-publication date)
- Date used here
- 12 January 2018 (Crossref publisher deposit, online publication date)
- Rights
- CC BY 4.0. Open access under a Creative Commons Attribution licence (CC BY 4.0), as recorded by Europe PMC and the licence link in the source record. The summary on this page is Fight Medicine Research Institute’s own wording. No text or figure from the article is reproduced here. Licence terms.
- Source check
- , against PubMed Central full text, Crossref and Europe PMC. Checked under the direction of Casey C. Sears, Founder. An LLM was utilized as a research tool with direct human oversight.
- Appraisal
- The check covered bibliographic details, links, licence and notices. It is not a formal critical appraisal of the full paper.
- Clinical review
- None. This record is a research summary, not clinical education.
- Funding and conflicts
- The article gives its funding as “Not applicable”, and the author declares no competing interests.
- Catalog
- FH-070, added
Cite the original work
These files cite the work by its own authors, journal and DOI. Fight Medicine Research Institute appears only in a note, as curator of this catalog page.
Gwynn Curran-Sills. Safety in Mixed Martial Arts: a 7-Year Review of Cancelled MMA Bouts in Calgary, Alberta, During the Pre-bout Medical Examination Period. Sports Medicine - Open. 2018;4(1):6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40798-018-0119-2
Related on this website
- Fighter Health: Emergency care and return to competition