Dana White Is Right: Hard Sparring Close to Fight Time Needs to Stop

Injuries weren’t always a concern for me, as a sports journalist. Covering the sport of boxing, I was rarely forced to endure the pain of big fight postponements as a result of injury. Boxers are either more careful or their training methods are inherently safer than those of mixed martial artists.

Perhaps Dana White is on the money when he argues that MMA fighters needn’t approach every training session like an actual fight.

Fighters often bristle at the suggestion that they should tone down the intensity in training, particularly as fight time approaches. Many point out that it is necessary for them to train as they intend to fight. However, such a preposterous notion should not go unchallenged.

The goal in any fight is to hurt the opponent, with a view to beating them into unconsciousness or manipulating a limb in such a way that six months of rehabilitation will be required.

Are fans expected to believe that fighters spar and roll with their close friends and training partners with similarly sinister intentions? I certainly hope not. I can scarcely think of anything less productive than going after your teammates with the kind of reckless abandon not seen since Steven Seagal in Hard to Kill.

In reference to the earlier point regarding the disproportionate disparity in training injuries between boxers and mixed martial artists, it is worth asking why there is such a pronounced difference.

I feel certain that MMA fighters are equally as robust as boxers, if not more so. The difference seems obvious, then. Both sets of athletes train striking, but only mixed martial artists grapple in training.

It’s true that we occasionally see cuts lead to fight postponements, as was the case with Rory MacDonald, who had apparently been sparring with axes. This is relatively rare compared to the epidemic of knee and shoulder injuries that are reported, however.

Dana White is correct when he says that fighters need to go a little lighter in sparring, but his ire should be focused more on those who crank on submissions or wrestle in training like they are competing for a gold medal at the Olympics.

It is a controversial argument, but it is worth considering whether Zuffa’s fighter insurance has had an impact on the number of pull-outs over the past year. Could it really be a coincidence that an injury plague began to spread just as health insurance kicked in? Call me cynical, but they seem related.

Let me be clear before I go any further, fighter insurance is a very good thing; it is something that is both necessary and just. Whether or not the recent rash of withdrawals is related to the UFC’s insurance policy does not change the fact that the fighters should have free access to health care.

Those who believe there is no connection often argue that pulling out of fights does not allow a fighter to earn a living. While this may be true, that particular argument is a little shortsighted.

Most of the fighters on the UFC roster understand the value of retaining one’s spot within the company. Their vision extends beyond the next fight or the next paycheque. They want to compete when they are as close to 100 percent as they can reasonably expect to be.

Competing while injured, even if only labouring a minor niggle, only increases one’s chances of putting in a subpar performance or, worse still, losing. Fighters do not want to live from paycheque to paycheque; they want to earn a win bonus, along with any other bonus on offer.

Most important of all, the fighters want to secure their continued employment by the UFC, and fighting injured is the most expedient means of earning a pink slip instead of a contract extension.

It is clear that there are a number of factors that have contributed to the current spate of injuries and withdrawals over the last 12 months. Most notably, fighters compete with far greater intensity than is necessary in training.

With that said, the UFC must realise that they put a certain amount of pressure on their fighters to not only perform, but also win. There are natural consequences to engineering such a competitive environment, particularly when hirings and firings are done so arbitrarily.

Both the fighters and the UFC need to accept some measure of responsibility for what has been a nightmarish period for the sport.

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem, but neither party seems willing to concede that they share in the blame.