Epidemiological analysis of athlete injuries in Muay Thai in-ring matches

The medical question

How often do athletes in doctor-supervised amateur Muay Thai contests need medical care, and how does that relate to referee stoppages?

The Fight Medicine Research Institute uses this evidence to frame questions about how referee stoppages relate to the injuries found at ringside and to hospital referrals. The study covers amateur athletes wearing mandatory protective equipment at two national championships, which determines which questions it can inform.

Summary

At two Turkish national amateur Muay Thai championships, about one in ten athletes needed care from the ring doctor, and most of them had their bout stopped.

What the work reports

• A ring doctor examined every athlete before the competition and again after each bout at two Turkish national championships. The authors recorded each referee-stops-contest (RSC) decision, the diagnoses, the treatment given at ringside and referrals to hospital. Protective equipment, including head and shin protectors, was mandatory.
• An RSC decision was recorded for 163 of the 663 athletes (24.58%): 67 because the referee judged the athlete outclassed or unfit, and 96 on the ring doctor’s advice. 68 athletes (10.25%) received care from the ring doctor. The most frequent diagnoses were nosebleed (13 athletes), eyebrow laceration (11) and concussion (10). 17 athletes (2.56%) were referred to a hospital emergency department, and one had urgent surgery for abdominal trauma.
• Ringside treatment was needed by 57 of the 163 athletes with an RSC decision and by 11 of the 500 without one (p < 0.001). The authors conclude that injury rates in these contests, managed by doctors and referees, were low compared with published research, and suggest that RSC decisions may be useful in preventing injury.

Limits to keep in mind

• The study covers amateur athletes aged 18 to 40 at two national championships with a ring doctor present. The authors state that professional contests, training, and contests without a doctor or referee were not included.
• The authors state that the number of injuries was too small to show cause and effect. All contests were run under the same stoppage rules, so the study cannot show that stopping contests prevented injuries.
• Injuries were those the ring doctor identified at the event. Apart from hospital reports for referred athletes, the article does not describe any follow-up after the championships.

Source issues recorded

• The abstract says 606 athletes (91.4%) had no health issues after their bouts. The Results section says 595 (89.74%), which matches the 68 athletes recorded as receiving care from the ring doctor. This record uses the count of 68.
• For the 2022 championship the Results text gives 235 men and 115 women, and Table 1 gives 240 men and 110 women. This record uses the totals on which the abstract and Table 1 agree: 445 men and 218 women.
• The abstract describes 24.58% as the share of contests that ended with a referee-stops-contest decision. Table 2 calculates it as 163 decisions among the 663 athletes, and the article counts 591 bouts. This record gives the figure as the table reports it.

Publication status and notices

Published in Injury Epidemiology, a peer-reviewed journal. Original research article in Injury Epidemiology.

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

Article details

Relationship

External research catalogued by the Fight Medicine Research Institute. The original authors, journal and DOI are unchanged.

Published online

26 May 2025

Repository date

26 May 2025 (Europe PMC first-publication date)

Date used here

26 May 2025 (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

12 November 2026, 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 authors declare no competing interests. One author’s listed affiliation includes the roles of international referee and head of the medical commission of the International Federation of Muay Thai Associations (IFMA).

Catalog

FH-065, added 12 November 2026

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.

Hasan Hallaçeli, Serkan Davut, Ali Özbek, Erdoğan Aydın. Epidemiological analysis of athlete injuries in Muay Thai in-ring matches. Injury Epidemiology. 2025;12(1):28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40621-025-00569-x

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Related on this website

• Research priority: Fight stoppage
• Fighter Health: Injury surveillance in boxing, MMA and bare-knuckle fighting