Growing Number of Injuries Highlights Need for... Less MMA?

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Growing Number of Injuries Highlights Need for... Less MMA?

By Cory Braiterman  @KrmtDfrog on Jun 4 2012, 7:56a 28

The latest in a spate of injuries to hit the UFC is Jon Fitch's knee injury, which will force him out of the UFC on Fuel TV 4 show in July. A replacement has yet to be named. Before I spell out what I'm calling for, let me run down a list of recent injuries to both upcoming and completed cards (I'll leave off the opponents names for completed events):

UFC 149: Thiago Silva out against Shogun. Yoshihiro Akiyama out against Thiago Alves.
UFC on Fuel: Fitch out against Aaron Simpson.
UFC 148: Dominick Cruz out against Faber.
UFC 147: Vitor Belfort out against Wanderlei.
UFC on FX Maynard vs Guida: Matt Riddle out against Luis Ramos. Jimy Hettes out against Steven Siler. Rich Attonito out against Rick Story. His replacement, Papi Abedi is also out.
The Ultimate Fighter Live Finale: Byron Bloodworth out.
UFC 146: Evan Dunham and Mark Hunt out.
UFC on Fuel Zombie vs Poirier: Aaron Riley, Azamat Gashimov, Mike Easton, Yves Edwards, Brandon Vera out.
UFC on Fox Diaz vs Miller: Jonny Bedford, Darren Uyenoyama, Dennis Hallman, Thiago Tavares out.
UFC 145: Matt Wiman out.
UFC on Fuel Gustafsson vs Silva: Little Nog out.
UFC on FX Alves vs Kampmann: Jared Hamman, Robbie Peralta out.
UFC 144: George Sotiropolous, Leonard Garcia out.

I'm going to stop at this point because I've covered a scant five months of events. Seriously, 144 was back on February 26th. In less than half of a year, 12 events and a whopping 27 injuries, including more to come. One of the reasons that people are pulling out of fights more is the UFC has given all fighters a comprehensive insurance policy. Before, fighters couldn't afford to be injured, so they probably combined training a little lighter with fighting injured. Honestly, I'd assume more the latter than the former. Quite honestly, it's a great thing that the UFC has done this, so that fighters aren't risking serious long-term damage for our entertainment - any more so than usual anyhow.

However, with fighters no longer quite as worried about fighting hurt, injuries have spiked. Again, in reality, the injuries always were there, but they're just getting reported now. Semantics, whatever.

Random side note: were the injuries always there?

The... pondering of this question and the rest of the article are over at Gals Guide. Come click, I will be making burgers soon.

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