No holds barred sport fighting: a 10 year review of mixed martial arts competition

Objective: To identify the most salient medical issues that may be associated with mixed martial arts competition by determining the types and proportions of match stoppages. Methods: Publicly available video footage of 1284 men competing in 642 consecutive televised matches from November 1993 to November 2003 was reviewed to determine the reasons for which matches were stopped. Matches were sanctioned by either a United States or Japan based mixed martial arts organisation. Results: Of the 642 matches, 182 (28.3 +/- 3.4%) were stopped because of head impact, 106 (16.5 +/- 2.9%) because of musculoskeletal stress, 91 (14.1 +/- 2.7%) because of neck choke, 83 (12.9 +/- 2.6%) because of miscellaneous trauma, 173 (27.0 +/- 3.4%) because of expiration of match time, and seven ( 1.0 +/- 0.8%) because of disqualification, where the values in parentheses are percentages +/- 95% confidence interval. Conclusions: Blunt force to the head resulted in the highest proportion of match stoppages. Further research is warranted to delineate the morbidity associated with participation in mixed martial arts.