A prominent doctor has criticized the rationale behind the Nevada Athletic Commission’s decision to regulate Dana White’s latest slap competition, labelling it “absurd and nonsensical.” The doctor is in the field of sports medicine.
Dr. Brian Sutterer uses his YouTube channel to teach others about sports medicine and injury prevention. He recently commented on the UFC’s plans to launch the Power Slap League, in which he harshly criticized treating slapping as a sport.
It was called “perhaps the most absurd and senseless sport in the world” by him.
“I don’t think any commission should be backing slap fighting. I think it’s one of the most senseless, unnecessarily risky and dangerous sports.” He said.
“What do we always say here in combat sports whether it’s boxing, mixed martial arts or whatever? It’s ‘protect yourself at all times’. Fighters, while they’re trying to inflict damage on one another and you might say the injuries that are possible in mixed martial arts are worse looking than the injuries in slap fighting, in slap fighting there is no defence.” Stutterer continued.
“You literally are not allowed to protect yourself. And so what you get is basically just two people trading concussive blows for one another.”
Last month, UFC introduced their newest promotion to the slapping industry – Power Slap League.
The premier MMA promotion recently presented to the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) on their plans to enter the slap scene.
When the NAC finally gave the sport its stamp of approval, the UFC wasted no time turning their vision into reality.
Sutterer thinks it’s a bad idea because the laws of the competition make it impossible to protect oneself. Unlike in conventional combat sports. In fact, in MMA the positions where one is unable to defend himself are illegal. This is why 12 to 6 elbows are banned. Same goes for slams with no arc and moves like the soccer kick.
He went on to say that the slaps used in the sport are “basically an open-handed punch,”. Despite the fact that the word “slapping” isn’t usually connected with injury.
There’s another interesting thing to note here – UFC’s own work around for MMA ban was to use ‘open fist’ punching back in the day. While on paper this makes sense it’s hard to picture a scenario where the so called slaps are harmless.
Even combat jjiu jitsu featured a slap KO and this is despite the fact one could defend themselves with grappling or slapping in return.
It is anticipated that the debut event of Dana White’s Power Slap League would take place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas sometime around the end of 2022.