Critics on Weird Sport: 'One of the Stupidest Things You Can Do'

UFC President Dana White says slap fighting is just good fun, but concussion experts disagree
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Mar 9, 2023 9:20 AM CST
Critics on Weird Sport: 'One of the Stupidest Things You Can Do'
In this photo, Ryan Phillips slaps Rob Perez at a Power Slap event in Las Vegas on March 31, 2022. When the open-handed blow is delivered, there's a sharp report, and the reaction can be dramatic. Some fighters barely move, while others stumble backward or fall to the floor. Some are knocked out.   (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via AP)

The competitors stand rigidly upright with their hands behind their backs, waiting to absorb a brutal slap to the face. When the open-handed blow is delivered, there's a sharp report and the reaction can be dramatic. Some fighters barely move, while others stumble backward or fall to the floor. Some are knocked out. UFC President Dana White is selling slap fighting as the next big thing in combat sports, putting his money and the resources of one of the world's foremost mixed martial arts organizations behind the Power Slap League. "It's a home run," said White, among several UFC officials involved in the league, per the AP. Power Slap fights are typically three to five rounds. The fighters take turns hitting each other in the face with an open hand; those on the receiving end stand with their hands behind their backs. A fighter has up to 60 seconds to recover and respond after receiving a blow.

Fighters can earn up to 10 points based on the effectiveness of the slap and the defender's reaction. Fights can end in a decision, knockout, technical knockout, or disqualification, such as for an illegal slap. Present at the events are a supervising doctor and a physician or physician's assistant, plus three EMTs and three ambulances. Some slap-fighting beat downs have gone viral, including a video from Eastern Europe showing a man who continues to compete even as half of his face swells to seemingly twice its size. White has touted the safety record of the UFC, but he hasn't talked specifically about injuries in the Power Slap League. The Nevada Athletic Commission has already sanctioned the league for Las Vegas matches.

Questions have arisen about the safety of slap fighting, particularly the risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease believed to be caused by repeated blows to the head. A former chair of the commission, which regulates combat sports in Nevada, says OKing the league was a mistake. Chris Nowinski, co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, agrees, calling slap fighting "one of the stupidest things you can do." White says slap fighting is safer than boxing or mixed martial arts, as each contestant usually takes only three blows per bout. In boxing, White says, that number could be 400 or more, and that doesn't include the shots taken during sparring. There's no sparring in slap fighting, he notes.

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Nowinski says that while there may be no sparring in practice sessions, that doesn't mean it doesn't happen elsewhere. He said comparing boxing to power slapping is misleading because slap fighters take a full blow each time. "You can slip [boxing] punches," he notes. But in slap fighting "you're taking out everything that’s interesting to watch and everything sporting [from boxing] and just doing the brain damage part." He adds that slap fighters don't make enough money to justify the risk. The Power Slap League wouldn't disclose how much it pays fighters. White and competitors remain unfazed, comparing commentary on slapping to the negative reaction the UFC faced in its infancy more than 20 years ago. "I think it's definitely overblown," said Ryan Phillips, a Power Slap League fighter. "I think a lot of people still just don't understand that it's still a slap."

(More extreme sports stories.)

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