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Not combat sports in general, but the combat sports where hitting the head of the opponent is a valid method for winning.

Boxing is by far the worst from this point of view, much worse than the combat sports that allow knock-outs but also have other alternatives, like MMA.

Combat sports like judo or fencing are much safer than American football.

by thinkcontext1 days ago|

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It shocking how different Olympic boxing is from pro boxing. Almost all Olympic style bouts finish and are decided on points, whereas pro boxing is primarily about inflicting damage, most often to the head to score a KO.

by boplicity1 days ago|

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They should remove all padding and safety equipment, and institute severe penalties for any contact that could cause injury. The sport would probably become sane, but people like the violence, so this isn't going to happen.

by dfxm121 days ago|

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~60% of rugby league players in one study were found to have CTE [0]. I bring this up because they don't wear pads, and I often hear (ETA: and even saw another commenter here post) that this makes them play safer (which might be true, but not to a meaningful degree; they still are not "safe").

FWIW, the NFL seemingly increasingly penalizes and expands the definition of unsafe hits every year. If people just liked the violence, BKB or power slap would be much more popular than they are.

0 - https://apnews.com/article/cte-australia-rugby-league-035e24...

by pessimizer1 days ago|

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"Safe" is a strawman, and "not to a meaningful degree" is simply a lie. Fewer serious injuries is meaningful.

That being said, rugby is a different game. Football for the most effected players is one crushing impact per down, and a lot of waiting around and planning. Without helmets, half of the players would be knocked out cold. Rugby is not like that.

Every down in football is basically like a sumo tachi-ai (initial charge.) It's absurdly stressful without a helmet to do it even once a day between professionals. People would have to stop leading with their heads.

> If people just liked the violence

This is irrelevant. I love gridiron football, I think it's the best team sport ever invented, especially for spectators. I don't just like the violence, I like the violence. I have to accept the fact that I might not like it as much if people weren't leading with their heads. It's also the smartest game in my opinion, and I'm amused by upper middle-class people in the US thinking that "soccer" is classy (because Europe) when all the players are so much dumber (let's talk about heading; that ball is soft, too.)

American football is an atrocity, though. Even at the professional level, it doesn't pay enough for how bad it hurts you (and careers are shortest for the people who see the most impacts.) At the college level, forget it.

by pessimizer1 days ago|

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Boxing is far worse than other combat sports because of the thick gloves, and plenty of combat sports don't involve significant head impacts at all.

The equipment to make it safe is the problem - it allows you to take orders of magnitude more blows to the head. There were many people saying that to improve the safety of football, you should get rid of helmets entirely.

Padded helmets in football and padded gloves in boxing serve the same purpose as having filters on cigarettes. Filters on cigarettes allow you to smoke a lot more, and a lot of the stuff that is worst for you is not filtered out.