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Mixed martial arts safer than boxing

Michael Park Norwich

Publication: The Day

Published 04/26/2012 12:00 AM
Updated 04/25/2012 06:17 PM

As usually happens when someone expresses an opinion on a subject the writer knows virtually nothing about, the editorial, "Legalizing Brutality," (April 19), is flat out wrong.

The editorial implies that somehow boxing is a safer and less "vicious" sport, even though researchers have pointed out that there is an average of 10 boxing deaths per year, compared to none reported from mixed martial arts competition.

Even the National Hockey League, with its single recorded fatality, boasts a worse record than Ultimate Fighting Competition, which is trying to legalize the sport in Connecticut.

That doesn't even consider the fact that the gloves used in boxing can be directly linked to long-term cognitive damage, an effect not caused by the lighter gloves used by MMA fighters.

And to compare the competition of skilled athletes to heartless animal abuse is an execrable insult. I realize an editorial is simply a matter of opinion, but in the future the writer would be better served to base it on facts.

The reason these fights should be allowed is not the money involved. It is simply that there is absolutely no reason to bar them.

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