By Joe Ferraro

It’s as if, not a day goes by that upon my rise from a good night’s rest, a preposterous story about MMA ignorance is brought to my attention. Today, I cannot fight the urge to share with you the sheer lunacy of the B.C. Medical Association’s desire to ban the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, not just in their own province, but also across the country of Canada.

The information came to me via an article posted on Tuesday, and stems from an internal meeting the BCMA held in July, and it’s intentions to further their ridiculous cause (and beliefs) to the “Canadian Medical Association’s annual general meeting at Niagara Falls, Ont., from Aug. 23 to 25″. If successful, they intend to lobby the Federal Government in hopes to extinguish the sport of MMA in the Great White North, for good.

Apparently the BCMA is worried about the sport, and based on their own beliefs “know there are a number of serious injuries that can occur, including broken limbs, lacerations and brain damage.”

Based on their finding(s), I wonder if their data includes athletes that compete in professional hockey, football, boxing, etc, and if competitors in these sports have ever suffered any “broken limbs, lacerations and brain damage”? If so, are they considering adding them on their “banned list”? I sincerely doubt it.

It appears as if their fear is similar to the rest of MMA’s harshest critics (who are all stuck in a time warp from the mid-nineties), that deaths in MMA are frequent and they need to put an end to it pronto.

But, not surprising, they join the list of those who do not base their argument on any sort of facts. So allow me to do so.

Since 1993, the year the sport of MMA was introduced to North America, there have been 2 (two) fatalities. The first was Sammy Vasquez in 2007, who died in Houston, while the second, was earlier this year when Michael Kirkham passed away in South Carolina.

It should be noted that Kirhkam’s death is still under investigation for a variety of reasons, namely the apparent poor standards that the South Carolina Athletic Commission uses to license athletes as well as the matchmaking in the bout. Many continue to argue, that not only should Kirkham NOT have been allowed to compete, he was overmatched in his bout, by an opponent who was far more skilled than he was, and that, the referee could have stopped the bout much earlier.

In total, (and for arguments sake) if you add the sad death of American Douglas Dedge, who died overseas in 1998, in an UNSANCTIONED bout in the Ukraine, this brings the international total of MMA fatalities to (3) three, in the 18 (eighteen) year time span since the sport has been made famous.

It should be noted that the total number of deaths in a major promotion (UFC, WEC, Pride, DREAM, Strikeforce, Bellator, MFC, King of the Cage, etc,) that is sanctioned by a well run State or Provincial Athletic Commission, is zero.

According to BoxRec, there were a total of 70 (seventy) reported fatalities in a boxing ring from 1998 to 2006, with an average of 8 a year attributed to the “sweet science”. If we take this average, that’s approximately 136.

A further look into the twenty sixth “Catastrophic Sports Injury Research” study conducted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, we see some staggering numbers into sporting fatalities that the BCMA may want to look into. To help them save time, I will list them below:

•       Football: 104 deaths and 531 non-fatal and serious injuries    •       Soccer: 7 deaths and 10 non-fatal and serious injuries

•       Cheerleading: 3 deaths and 102 non-fatal and serious injuries

•       Basketball: 2 deaths and 17 non-fatal and serious injuries

•       Ice Hockey: 2 deaths and 17 non-fatal and serious injuries

•       Wrestling: 2 deaths and 56 non-fatal and serious injuries

•       Gymnastics: 1 death and 12 non-fatal and serious injuries

Does this mean that MMA is just as safe as Cheerleading, and much safer than soccer and football? It’s not for me to say, but the numbers are what they are.

Folks at the BCMA need to visit MMAFacts.com so they can get their info straight, and should also pay close attention the study conducted by the esteemed John Hopkins School of Medicine, who in 2006, published the Incidence of Injury In Professional Mixed Martial Arts Competitions in the Journal of Sports Science in Medicine. Most of their ignorant perceptions of MMA can be cleared by reviewing this study, which is four years old.

The President of the BCMA, Dr. Ian Gillespie, compared the dangers of MMA ground fighting to the stand up art of boxing by saying “MMA allows a fighter to attack an opponent while down and we believe those things increase the risk of serious injury.”

An interesting statement and fair enough, so to Mr. Gillespie and his esteemed board of associates, feel free to prove it. Many of us will patiently waiting for your findings, but until then, please stop making motions to ban a sport you apparently have next to no understanding about.

The article also cites Gillespie’s stance that the “BCMA takes the position that MMA fights are more dangerous than boxing because of fewer safety rules.”

Again, I shake my head at the flat out ignorance of this statement, as it was common place say this kind of stuff years ago, to which the MMA community has already addressed and fixed (and I repeat – some people are still stuck in a time warp).

It’s obvious the President of the BCMA, and it’s members need to review the “Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts“, which list what can, and cannot be done in a sanctioned MMA bout, including the 31 (thirty one) fouls that make the sport safe for it’s competitors. It should also be noted to the BCME, that these rules were established in 2000 – nearly a decade ago.

To the BCMA – welcome to 2010. Your opinions of MMA go back more than ten years, and in fact, go back to a time when Pavel Bure was wearing the number 10 jersey for the Vancouver Canucks, while Kirk McClean was protecting the goal when the team last made it to the Stanley Cup Finals. Is it safe to say that times have changes since then? I personally believe so – but it’s obvious, you do not.

Your type of thinking falls in line with a recent poll conducted by MacLean’s Magazine, who asked if patients truly trust their doctor.

The poll shows that “40 per cent of Canadians believe physicians across the country care less about their patients than they did a decade ago” and that they feel “rushed” when visiting their family MD. Mind you, not all physicians fall into this category – I know mine do not, as they are well educated and are consistent with the ongoing changes in medicine. If they do not keep up with the times, I move on to an MD who is educated and not prescribing medication or solutions from nearly twenty years ago.

To the BCME: as the old saying goes, perhaps you should clean up your own backyard before you go knocking on your neighbours door.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 13th, 2010 at 2:22 pm and is filed under 1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.