Which is the most "brutal" sport

[Tony Montana]

What I mean by brutal is which sport is the most physically damaging/dangeours?

I say boxing for the following reasons;
- 12 rounds
- the glove protects the hand from beaking allowing repeated blows to the opponent
- the knockdown rule allows the fighter to stand back up and take more punishment
- fight only ends on a knockout unlike MMA where it ends on a knockout or when the opponent is not intelligently defending themselves
- I saw the post fight Ward/Gatti special HBO aired last night. Ward took over 300 punches!

Although MMA may appear to be more brutal to the casual observer I think it is indeed much safer than boxing.

[vegasbjj]

I agree. The total amount of repetitive blows a boxer takes over the span of their carreer makes it the most "brutal" of the choices. (Although besides a KO or TKO, a boxing match CAN be stopped by the fighter's corner or the fighter declaring, "No mas". Just look at the long term damage pro boxers suffer. However, to me baseball and American football are the most brutal sports...To watch, because they're so damn boring! Painful!

[robbypark]

When we are talking about the professional organizations, Boxing is more brutal than MMA. Far more deaths and injuries have been recorded in pro boxing than have been recorded in MMA.

That's precisely the reason why I get pissed off when I see somebody on TV say that MMA should be banned for being too brutal, when they think Boxing should still exist.

With all that said; however, when it comes to smaller, indy and underground promotions, it's a completely different story.

[Cbear]

I've never really watched Rugby so I can't judget that at all. But, lets analyze bodily abuse and what is most critical.

American Football- joint and soft tissue damage. Knees, shoulders, necks, backs, hips take a pounding.

MMA- head trauma from strikes. Mostly soft tissue via cuts as most fighters can't hold up to repeated blows and keep fighting. Fighters I am concerned about for possible long term brain injury are Big Nog, Sakuraba, Fujita, Frye, Inoue, and the other guys who make a career eating bombs. Joint wear is probably more common than head trauma from submission holds, and the wear and tear of grappling. Necks, knees, shoulders, elbows, etc...

Boxing- almost entirely head damage from repeated, long term blows. Body damage does occur but pales in comparision to brain injury.

Humans can function with damaged joints even if it means living in pain. But, brain damage alters everything in their life and ability to properly care for themselves mentally and physically if its bad enough. Thus, boxing is the most insidious when it comes to sports injuries affecting quality of life in my opinion.

[Cbear]

To put an even finer point on this, we could make mma safer healthwise, but not boxing. I would not be opposed to banning elbows and knees as they are very destructive strikes. Fists are not as big of a problem since grappling gloves limit the striking as the risk of breaking a hand increases. No real fear of damaging an elbow or knee in strikes. Soccor kicks on the ground should be banned...period! MMA could continue if all it was was grappling and submissions and even the old Pancrase palm strikes and I think would still be exciting. But, boxing is only one thing and thats head shots. If you take away head shots, it dies. If you require headgear it still has the potential for brain damage as that pads the head but doesn't stop the hydro shock of the brain bouncing around the skull. Thus, I don't really think boxing could be made safe, but mma could if we had to. As for kickboxing, I think its right up there with boxing for danger since it is purely striking. Mostly head strike trauma for long term effect though they do inflict body damage as well as wear out their own body joints. Boxing and kickboxing without the head strikes are dead sports. But, mma could severely limit head strikes and still be exciting. Bottom line is that head trauma is the greatest risk.

[scott]

Boxing is only more dangerous than Kickboxing because they have 12 rounds. If kickboxing had 12 rounds it would be far more brutal than boxing because of the kicks(which are much more powerful than punches) to the head.