The Hauser Report — Slap Fighting: A Bad Idea Whose Time Shouldn’t Come

Published

2 years ago

October 21, 2022

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On October 18, 2022, the Nevada State Athletic Commission approved a proposal to categorize slap fighting as unarmed combat that will be allowed when conducted pursuant to rules and regulations promulgated by the State of Nevada and overseen by the commission.

UFC president Dana White, Fertitta Capital (an investment firm owned by former UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta), Endeavor (which bought UFC in 2016), UFC chief business officer Hunter Campbell, TV producer Craig Piligan (“The Ultimate Fighter”), and Zeke Capital (a hedge fund) are the primary owners of an entity called Power Slap League which will be the most obvious beneficiary of the ruling.

During the commission meeting, NSAC chairman Stephen Cloobeck said that a video prepared by Power Slap League personnel that he watched was “highly entertaining” and praised the involvement of “professionals who know what they’re doing.”

Now let’s get real.

MMA writer Ben Fowlkes recently called slap fighting “a nascent sport crawling out of the primordial ooze” and “the dumbest sport imaginable.”

“The concept of slap fighting,” Fowlkes elaborated, “is about as simple as it gets. Two people stand across from each other and take turns hitting each other in the face with an open hand until, one way or another, someone has had enough. It might be the only combat sport where any form of defense is expressly, explicitly banned.”

To repeat; there’s no defense. Competitors are not allowed to keep their guard up or move their head. They wait for the blow. How hard they can hit and how much punishment they can take determine who wins. Whoever knocks his opponent out emerges victorious. It’s brutal and it’s dangerous.

Last year, a Polish slap fighter named Artur “Waluś” Walczak died from brain injuries after being knocked out in a slap fight in Wrocław.

So why is the Nevada State Athletic Commission working with the Fertittas, Dana White, and their brethren to enable this venture?

“We already know the answer,” Fowlkes writes. “The answer is money. There’s simply no way you can get me to believe that White and the Fertittas and the rest of the gang saw a Belarussian slap fighting competition on YouTube and said to each other, ‘This is an important movement, and, for the sake of our legacies, we need to be a part of it.'”

Appearing before the Nevada State Athletic Commission on October 18, Hunter Campbell testified that slap fighting intends to follow “an identical template for what we have with UFC events,” and added, “We’ve spent the last year sort of beta-testing this in a controlled environment to really test and see sort of the dynamic of how this would function as an actual league and real sport. What we’ve found is that this is actually a skill sport; that the participants that are at a high level in this are skilled athletes. They train. They’re in good shape. They take it seriously.”

As reported by CombatSportsLaw.com, when asked about the NSAC’s decision to legitimize slap fighting, Nevada deputy attorney general Joel Bekker (who works with the commission) responded, “I can assure you that licensed doctors with knowledge and experience working with unarmed combat athletes were consulted with to assure that Slap Fighting, like all other regulated unarmed combat sports in Nevada, is conducted as safely as possible with the ultimate goal being the health and safety of all participants.”

The Sweet Science reached out to the Nevada Attorney General’s Office and asked which doctors Bekker was referring to in his statement and which doctors, if any, testified before the NSAC regarding slap fighting.

The Nevada Attorney General’s Office declined to answer the question other than to state that the doctor in question (apparently there was only one) “has been actively licensed in Nevada since the 1990s and worked for the NSAC in the past.” That sounds like the resume of a physician currently employed by UFC. Where are the independent medical observers?

One might also ask about the “beta testing in a controlled environment” that Campbell says Power Slap League (or its proxies) conducted. How many times were defenseless combatants hit in the head as part of the testing process? How many of these combatants were concussed? What other injuries did they suffer? How much of the testing process was recorded on video? How much of this video was destroyed? Did the commission ask to see the rest of the video or only the carefully edited “entertaining” video that the commission chair referenced?

Bekker further advised, “Slap fighting competitors are mandated to wear protective gear during their bouts including a tooth/gum shield and cotton ear padding . . . The scoring target area deliberately excludes the eyes, nose, chin, neck, and temple areas of the head and face. Strikes outside that area are considered Fouls . . . All competitions will have ‘Catchers’ or ‘Spotters’ behind the defensive competitor to ensure that struck competitors do not hit the ground hard, especially their heads.”

The cotton ear padding is supposed to help protect slap fighters against ruptured eardrums. Brain bleeds and the specter of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) are of greater concern.

I’m not an expert on slap fighting. But I’ve looked at the videos and I think it’s awful. The cardinal rule in combat sports is to protect yourself at all times. In boxing or MMA, if a fighter can’t defend himself or herself, the referee stops the fight. And the whole point of slap fighting is to hit someone in the head as hard as you can while he or she is not allowed to defend himself.

Dr. Nitin Sethi (a neurologist whose primary practice is affiliated with Weill Cornell Medicine) is chief medical officer for the New York State Athletic Commission. Putting slap fighting in perspective, Dr. Sethi states, “Concussions and acute traumatic brain injuries are common in combat sports. In boxing, every punch thrown at the head is thrown with the intention of winning by causing a knockout which is a concussive brain injury.”

“Subdural hematoma,” Dr. Sethi continues, “remains the most common cause of boxing-related mortality. Boxers, as you are painfully aware, have died in the ring or in the immediate aftermath of a bout. The ones who survive by undergoing a timely decompressive hemicraniectomy are left behind with devastating and lifelong neurological deficits. The far bigger burden and problem is that of chronic neurological injuries such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Unfortunately, this burden remains hidden and comes to medical attention long after the fighter has retired.”

Turning to slap fighting, Dr. Sethi explains, “Open-handed slaps delivered with such force to the opponents face frequently cause the person’s legs to buckle, at times suffer momentary – sometimes longer – loss of consciousness, and collapse to the floor. These are all concussive injuries of varying duration. The ‘athlete’ who is on the receiving end of the slap has no option available to him to defend himself. These ‘slaps’ will add up. In my professional opinion, those who partake in this ‘sport’ will also suffer the stigmata of chronic neurological injuries.”

Finally, Sethi adds, “I disagree with the argument that better medical supervision of this ‘sport’ shall make it safer. I am not sure what a physician is meant to supervise here other than being the overseer of concussive injuries occurring under his or her watch.”

Dr. Michael Schwartz (the driving force behind creation of the Association of Ringside Physicians) is equally pointed in his criticism.

“We’ve spent so many years trying to educate commissions and fighters about brain damage,” Dr. Schwartz says. “And now you have this. These guys get hit in the head. You’re inflicting a concussion without allowing the combatant to in any way protect himself. And then he gets hit in the head again. Every concussion is brain damage. The first concussion is damaging. And with second impact syndrome, the second concussion can be life-threatening. It’s insane.”

Nevada State Athletic Commission executive director Jeff Mullen supported the decision to enable slap fighting. To justify this position, Mullen says, “This sport needs to be regulated. And if we don’t regulate it, it will be taking place everywhere all over town without any kind of regulations, without any kind of safety standard. By regulating this, we can make sure that there’s doctors there, ambulances there, that the fighters have physicals, they have eye exams, they have MRIs and MRAs. And if we don’t regulate it, we’re going to have people competing right off a bar stool and it’s going to be a dangerous situation. I think, for the health and safety of our constituents, we have to do that.”

That’s nonsense.

Yes, slap fighting is easy to run as an outlaw sport. There’s no ring, just two combatants standing or sitting at a table. They don’t even need gloves. But if slap fighting goes mainstream, it will encourage more people – particularly young people – to emulate it. That will mean more slap fighting in casual settings such as school playgrounds and bars.

Maybe someone should seat the NSAC commissioners at a table. Let a 300-pound slap fighter whack each of them in the head. Then let’s see if the commissioners want to reconsider their vote.

Meanwhile, don’t call it “slap fighting.” That cosmeticizes the brutality. Call it what it is – “whack a defenseless person in the head as hard as you can to cause brain damage.”

Thomas Hauser’s email address is thomashauserwriter@gmail.com. His most recent book – In the Inner Sanctum: Behind the Scenes at Big Fights – was just published by the University of Arkansas Press. In 2004, the Boxing Writers Association of America honored Hauser with the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism. In 2019, Hauser was selected for boxing’s highest honor – induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.

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Thomas Hauser

Thomas Hauser is the author of 52 books. In 2005, he was honored by the Boxing Writers Association of America, which bestowed the Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence in boxing journalism upon him. He was the first Internet writer ever to receive that award. In 2019, Hauser was chosen for boxing's highest honor: induction into the International Boxing Hall of Fame. Lennox Lewis has observed, “A hundred years from now, if people want to learn about boxing in this era, they’ll read Thomas Hauser.”

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Ringside at the Fontainebleau where Mikaela Mayer Won her Rematch with Sandy Ryan

Published

2 days ago

March 30, 2025

Arne K. Lang

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LAS VEGAS, NV — The first meeting between Mikaela Mayer and Sandy Ryan last September at Madison Square Garden was punctuated with drama before the first punch was thrown. When the smoke cleared, Mayer had become a world-title-holder in a second weight class, taking away Ryan’s WBO welterweight belt via a majority decision in a fan-friendly fight.

The rematch tonight at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas was another fan-friendly fight. There were furious exchanges in several rounds and the crowd awarded both gladiators a standing ovation at the finish.

Mayer dominated the first half of the fight and held on to win by a unanimous decision. But Sandy Ryan came on strong beginning in round seven, and although Mayer was the deserving winner, the scores favoring her (98-92 and 97-93 twice) fail to reflect the competitiveness of the match-up. This is the best rivalry in women’s boxing aside from Taylor-Serrano.

Mayer, 34, improved to 21-2 (5). Up next, she hopes, in a unification fight with Lauren Price who outclassed Natasha Jonas earlier this month and currently holds the other meaningful pieces of the 147-pound puzzle. Sandy Ryan, 31, the pride of Derby, England, falls to 7-3-1.

Co-Feature

In his first defense of his WBO world welterweight title (acquired with a brutal knockout of Giovani Santillan after the title was vacated by Terence Crawford), Atlanta’s Brian Norman Jr knocked out Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas in the third round. A three-punch combination climaxed by a short left hook sent Cuevas staggering into a corner post. He got to his feet before referee Thomas Taylor started the count, but Taylor looked in Cuevas’s eyes and didn’t like what he saw and brought the bout to a halt.

The stoppage, which struck some as premature, came with one second remaining in the third stanza.

A second-generation prizefighter (his father was a fringe contender at super middleweight), the 24-year-old Norman (27-0, 21 KOs) is currently boxing’s youngest male title-holder. It was only the second pro loss for Cuevas (27-2-1) whose lone previous defeat had come early in his career in a 6-rounder he lost by split decision.

Other Bouts

In a career-best performance, 27-year-old Brooklyn featherweight Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington (15-0, 9 KOs) blasted out Jose Enrique Vivas (23-4) in the third round.

Carrington, who was named the Most Outstanding Boxer at the 2019 U.S. Olympic Trials despite being the lowest-seeded boxer in his weight class, decked Vivas with a right-left combination near the end of the second round. Vivas barely survived the round and was on a short leash when the third stanza began. After 53 seconds of round three, referee Raul Caiz Jr had seen enough and waived it off. Vivas hadn’t previously been stopped.

Cleveland welterweight Tiger Johnson, a Tokyo Olympian, scored a fifth-round stoppage over San Antonio’s Kendo Castaneda. Johnson assumed control in the fourth round and sent Castaneda to his knees twice with body punches in the next frame. The second knockdown terminated the match. The official time was 2:00 of round five.

Johnson advanced to 15-0 (7 KOs). Castenada declined to 21-9.

Las Vegas junior welterweight Emiliano Vargas (13-0, 11 KOs) blasted out Stockton, California’s Giovanni Gonzalez in the second round. Vargas brought the bout to a sudden conclusion with a sweeping left hook that knocked Gonzalez out cold. The end came at the 2:00 minute mark of round two.

Gonzalez brought a 20-7-2 record which was misleading as 18 of his fights were in Tijuana where fights are frequently prearranged. However, he wasn’t afraid to trade with Vargas and paid the price.

Emiliano Vargas, with his matinee idol good looks and his boxing pedigree – he is the son of former U.S. Olympian and two-weight world title-holder “Ferocious” Fernando Vargas – is highly marketable and has the potential to be a cross-over star.

Eighteen-year-old Newark bantamweight Emmanuel “Manny” Chance, one of Top Rank’s newest signees, won his pro debut with a four-round decision over So Cal’s Miguel Guzman. Chance won all four rounds on all three cards, but this was no runaway. He left a lot of room for improvement.

There was a long intermission before the co-main and again before the main event, but the tedium was assuaged by a moving video tribute to George Foreman.

Photos credit: Al Applerose

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William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

Published

2 days ago

March 29, 2025

David A. Avila

William Zepeda Edges Past Tevin Farmer in Cancun; Improves to 34-0

No surprise, once again William Zepeda eked out a win over the clever and resilient Tevin Farmer to remain undefeated and retain a regional lightweight title on Saturday.

There were no knockdowns in this rematch.

The Mexican punching machine Zepeda (33-0, 17 KOs) once more sought to overwhelm Farmer (33-8-1, 9 KOs) with a deluge of blows. This rematch by Golden Boy Promotions took place in the famous beach resort area of Cancun, Mexico.

It was a mere four months ago that both first clashed in Saudi Arabia with their vastly difference styles. This time the tropical setting served as the background which suited Zepeda and his lawnmower assaults. The Mexican fans were pleased.

Nothing changed in their second meeting.

Zepeda revved up the body assault and Farmer moved around casually to his right while fending off the Mexican fighter’s attacks. By the fourth round Zepeda was able to cut off Farmer’s escape routes and targeted the body with punishing shots.

The blows came in bunches.

In the fifth round Zepeda blasted away at Farmer who looked frantic for an escape. The body assault continued with the Mexican fighter pouring it on and Farmer seeming to look ready to quit. When the round ended, he waved off his corner’s appeals to stop.

Zepeda continued to dominate the next few rounds and then Farmer began rallying. At first, he cleverly smothered Zepeda’s body attacks and then began moving and hitting sporadically. It forced the Mexican fighter to pause and figure out the strategy.

Farmer, a Philadelphia fighter, showed resiliency especially when it was revealed he had suffered a hand injury.

During the last three rounds Farmer dug down deep and found ways to score and not get hit. It was Boxing 101 and the Philly fighter made it work.

But too many rounds had been put in the bank by Zepeda. Despite the late rally by Farmer one judge saw it 114-114, but two others scored it 116-112 and 115-113 for Zepeda who retains his interim lightweight title and place at the top of the WBC rankings.

“I knew he was a difficult fighter. This time he was even more difficult,” said Zepeda.

Farmer was downtrodden about another loss but realistic about the outcome and starting slow.

“But I dominated the last rounds,” said Farmer.

Zepeda shrugged at the similar outcome as their first encounter.

“I’m glad we both put on a great show,” said Zepeda.

Female Flyweight Battle

Costa Rica’s Yokasta Valle edged past Texas fighter Marlen Esparza to win their showdown at flyweight by split decision after 10 rounds.

Valle moved up two weight divisions to meet Esparza who was slightly above the weight limit. Both showed off their contrasting styles and world class talent.

Esparza, a former unified flyweight world titlist, stayed in the pocket and was largely successful with well-placed jabs and left hooks. She repeatedly caught Valle in-between her flurries.

The current minimumweight world titlist changed tactics and found more success in the second half of the fight. She forced Esparza to make the first moves and that forced changes that benefited her style.

Neither fighter could take over the fight.

After 10 rounds one judge saw Esparza the winner 96-94, but two others saw Valle the winner 97-93 twice.

Will Valle move up and challenge the current undisputed flyweight world champion Gabriela Fundora? That’s the question.

Valle currently holds the WBC minimumweight world title.

Puerto Rico vs Mexico

Oscar Collazo (12-0, 9 KOs), the WBO, WBA minimumweight titlist, knocked out Mexico’s Edwin Cano (13-3-1, 4 KOs) with a flurry of body shots at 1:12 of the fifth round.

Collazo dominated with a relentless body attack the Mexican fighter could not defend. It was the Puerto Rican fighter’s fifth consecutive title defense.

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Avila Perspective, Chap. 319: Rematches in Las Vegas, Cancun and More

Published

3 days ago

March 28, 2025

David A. Avila

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Rematches are the bedrock for prizefighting.

Return battles between rival boxers always means their first encounter was riveting and successful at the box office.

Six months after their first brutal battle Mikaela Mayer (20-2, 5 KOs) and Sandy Ryan (7-2-1, 3 KOs) will slug it out again for the WBO welterweight world title this time on Saturday, March 29, at the Fontainebleau in Las Vegas.

ESPN will show the Top Rank card live.

“It’s important for women’s boxing to have these rivalries and this is definitely up there as one of the top ones,” Mayer told the BBC.

If you follow Mayer’s career you know that somehow drama follows. Whether its back-and-forth beefs with fellow American fighters or controversial judging due to nationalism in countries abroad. The Southern California native who now trains in Las Vegas knows how to create the drama.

For female fighters self-promotion is a necessity.

Most boxing promoters refuse to step out of the usual process set for male boxers, not for female boxers. Things remain the same and have been for the last 70 years. Social media has brought changes but that has made promoters do even less.

No longer are there press conferences, instead announcements are made on social media to be drowned among the billions of other posts. It is not killing but diluting interest in the sport.

Women innately present a different advantage that few if any promoters are recognizing. So far in the past 25 years I have only seen two or three promoters actually ignite interest in female fighters. They saw the advantages and properly boosted interest in the women.

The fight breakdown

Mayer has won world titles in the super featherweight and now the welterweight division. Those are two vastly different weight classes and prove her fighting abilities are based on skill not power or size.

Coaching Mayer since amateurs remains Al Mitchell and now Kofi Jantuah who replaced Kay Koroma the current trainer for Sandy Ryan.

That was the reason drama ignited during their first battle. Then came someone tossing paint at Ryan the day of their first fight.

More drama.

During their first fight both battled to control the initiative with Mayer out-punching the British fighter by a slender margin. It was a back-and-forth struggle with each absorbing blows and retaliating immediately.

New York City got its money’s worth.

Ryan had risen to the elite level rapidly since losing to Erica Farias three years ago. Though she was physically bigger and younger, she was out-maneuvered and defeated by the wily veteran from Argentina. In the rematch, however, Ryan made adjustments and won convincingly.

Can she make adjustments from her defeat to Mayer?

“I wanted the rematch straight away,” said Ryan on social media. “I’ve come to America again.”

Both fighters have size and reach. In their first clash it was evident that conditioning was not a concern as blows were fired nonstop in bunches. Mayer had the number of punches landed advantage and it unfolded with the judges giving her a majority decision win.

That was six months ago. Can she repeat the outcome?

Mayer has always had boiler-oven intensity. It’s not fake. Since her amateur days the slender Southern California blonde changes disposition all the way to red when lacing up the gloves. It’s something that can’t be taught.

Can she draw enough of that fire out again?

“I didn’t have to give her this rematch. I could have just sat it out, waited for Lauren Price to unify and fought for undisputed or faced someone else,” said Mayer to BBC. “That’s not the fighter I am though.”

Co-Main in Las Vegas

The co-main event pits Brian Norman Jr. (26-0, 20 KOs) facing Puerto Rico’s Derrieck Cuevas (27-1-1, 19 KOs) in a contest for the WBO welterweight title.

Norman, 24, was last seen a year ago dissecting a very good welterweight in Giovani Santillan for a knockout win in San Diego. He showed speed, skill and power in defeating Santillan in his hometown.

Cuevas has beaten some solid veteran talent but this will be his big test against Norman and his first attempt at winning a world title.

Also on the Top Rank card will be Bruce “Shu Shu” Carrington and Emiliano Vargas, the son of Fernando Vargas, in separate bouts.

Golden Boy in Cancun

A rematch between undefeated William “Camaron” Zepeda (32-0, 27 KOs) and ex-champ Tevin Farmer (33-7-1, 8 KOs) headlines the lightweight match on Saturday March 29, at Cancun, Mexico.

In their first encounter Zepeda was knocked down in the fourth round but rallied to win a split-decision over Farmer. It showed the flaws in Zepeda’s tornado style.

DAZN will stream the Golden Boy Promotions card that also includes a clash between Yokasta Valle the WBC minimumweight world titlist who is moving up to flyweight to face former flyweight champion Marlen Esparza.

Both Valle and Esparza have fast hands.

Valle is excellent darting in and out while Esparza has learned how to fight inside. It’s a toss-up fight.

Fights to Watch

Fri. DAZN 12 p.m. Cameron Vuong (7-0) vs Jordan Flynn (11-0-1); Pat Brown (0-0) vs Federico Grandone (7-4-2).

Sat. DAZN 5 p.m. William Zepeda (32-0) vs Tevin Farmer (33-7-1); Yokasta Valle (32-3) vs Marlen Esparza (15-2).

Sat. ESPN 7 p.m. Mikaela Mayer (20-2) vs Sandy Ryan (7-2-1); Brian Norman Jr. (26-0) vs Derrieck Cuevas (27-1-1).

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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