Dr. Brian Sutterer says Dana White’s slap fighting is a ‘Senseless sport’

“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,’” Sutterer said.

“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 defense. You literally are not allowed to protect yourself. And so what you get is basically just two people trading concussive blows for one another.”

“If you strike someone with more of the hard bones of the wrist or the carpus, it’s really no different than just punching someone,” Sutterer said.

“Your wrist bones sit right underneath this lower portion of the palm. So if you make contact with someone’s face striking with that portion of your wrist, it’s not a slap at all. It’s essentially the equivalent to an open-handed punch.”

Even while Sutterer knows that officials, medical professionals, and spotters would be present to keep incapacitated fighters from collapsing to the floor, he still doesn’t see why any state would give its blessing to slap fighting.