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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Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh

Published

21 hours ago

December 21, 2024

Arne K. Lang

Usyk Outpoints Fury and Itauma has the “Wow Factor” in Riyadh

Oleksandr Usyk left no doubt that he is the best heavyweight of his generation and one of the greatest boxers of all time with a unanimous decision over Tyson Fury tonight at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. But although the Ukrainian won eight rounds on all three scorecards, this was no runaway. To pirate a line from one of the DAZN talking heads, Fury had his moments in every round but Usyk had more moments.

The early rounds were fought at a faster pace than the first meeting back in May. At the mid-point, the fight was even. The next three rounds – the next five to some observers – were all Usyk who threw more punches and landed the cleaner shots.

Fury won the final round in the eyes of this reporter scoring at home, but by then he needed a knockout to pull the match out of the fire.

The last round was an outstanding climax to an entertaining chess match during which both fighters took turns being the pursuer and the pursued.

An Olympic gold medalist and a unified world champion at cruiserweight and heavyweight, the amazing Usyk improved his ledger to 23-0 (14). His next fight, more than likely, will come against the winner of the Feb. 22 match in Ridayh between Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker which will share the bill with the rematch between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.

Fury (34-2-1) may fight Anthony Joshua next. Regardless, no one wants a piece of Moses Itauma right now although the kid is only 19 years old.

Moses Itauma

Raised in London by a Nigerian father and a Slovakian mother, Itauma turned heads once again with another “wow” performance. None of his last seven opponents lasted beyond the second round.

His opponent tonight, 34-year-old Australian Demsey McKean, lasted less than two minutes. Itauma, a southpaw with blazing fast hands, had the Aussie on the deck twice during the 117-second skirmish. The first knockdown was the result of a cuffing punch that landed high on the head; the second knockdown was produced by an overhand left. McKean went down hard as his chief cornerman bounded on to the ring apron to halt the massacre.

Photo (c): Mark Robinson

Itauma (12-0, 10 KOs after going 20-0 as an amateur) is the real deal. It was the second straight loss for McKean (22-2) who lasted into the 10^th round against Filip Hrgovic in his last start.

Bohachuk-Davis

In a fight billed as the co-main although it preceded Itauma-McKean, Serhii Bohachuk, an LA-based Ukrainian, stopped Ishmael Davis whose corner pulled him out after six frames.

Both fighters were coming off a loss in fights that were close on the scorecards, Bohachuk falling to Vergil Ortiz Jr in a Las Vegas barnburner and Davis losing to Josh Kelly.

Davis, who took the fight on short notice, subbing for Ismail Madrimov, declined to 13-2. He landed a few good shots but was on the canvas in the second round, compliments of a short left hook, and the relentless Bohachuk (25-2, 24 KOs) eventually wore him down.

Fisher-Allen

In a messy, 10-round bar brawl masquerading as a boxing match, Johnny Fisher, the Romford Bull, won a split decision over British countryman David Allen. Two judges favored Fisher by 95-94 tallies with the dissenter favoring Allen 96-93. When the scores were announced, there was a chorus of boos and those watching at home were outraged.

Allen was a step up in class for Fisher. The Doncaster man had a decent record (23-5-2 heading in) and had been routinely matched tough (his former opponents included Dillian Whyte, Luis “King Kong” Ortiz and three former Olympians). But Allen was fairly considered no more than a journeyman and Fisher (12-0 with 11 KOs, eight in the opening round) was a huge favorite.

In round five, Allen had Fisher on the canvas twice although only one was ruled a true knockdown. From that point, he landed the harder shots and, at the final bell, he fell to canvas shedding tears of joy, convinced that he had won.

He did not win, but he exposed Johnny Fisher as a fighter too slow to compete with elite heavyweights, a British version of the ponderous Russian-Canadian campaigner Arslanbek Makhmudov.

Other Bouts of Note

In a spirited 10-round featherweight match, Scotland’s Lee McGregor, a former European bantamweight champion and stablemate of former unified 140-pound title-holder Josh Taylor, advanced to 15-1-1 (11) with a unanimous decision over Isaac Lowe (25-3-3). The judges had it 96-92 and 97-91 twice.

A cousin and regular houseguest of Tyson Fury, Lowe fought most of the fight with cuts around both eyes and was twice deducted a point for losing his gumshield.

In a fight between super featherweights that could have gone either way, Liverpool southpaw Peter McGrail improved to 11-1 (6) with a 10-round unanimous decision over late sub Rhys Edwards. The judges had it 96-95 and 96-94 twice.

McGrail, a Tokyo Olympian and 2018 Commonwealth Games gold medalist, fought from the third round on with a cut above his right eye, the result of an accidental clash of heads. It was the first loss for Edwards (16-1), a 24-year-old Welshman who has another fight booked in three weeks.

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Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?

Published

2 days ago

December 20, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Fury-Usyk Reignited: Can the Gypsy King Avenge his Lone Defeat?

In professional boxing, the heavyweight division, going back to the days of John L. Sullivan, is the straw that stirs the drink. By this measure, the fight on May 18 of this year at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was the biggest prizefight in decades. The winner would emerge as the first undisputed heavyweight champion since 1999 when Lennox Lewis out-pointed Evander Holyfield in their second meeting.

The match did not disappoint. It had several twists and turns.

Usyk did well in the early rounds, but the Gypsy King rattled Usyk with a harsh right hand in the fifth stanza and won rounds five through seven on all three cards. In the ninth, the match turned sharply in favor of the Ukrainian. Fury was saved by the bell after taking a barrage of unanswered punches, the last of which dictated a standing 8-count from referee Mark Nelson. But Fury weathered the storm and with his amazing powers of recuperation had a shade the best of it in the final stanza.

The decision was split: 115-112 and 114-113 for Usyk who became a unified champion in a second weight class; 114-113 for Fury.

That brings us to tomorrow (Saturday, Dec. 21) where Usyk and Fury will renew acquaintances in the same ring where they had their May 18 showdown.

The first fight was a near “pick-‘em” affair with Fury closing a very short favorite at most of the major bookmaking establishments. The Gypsy King would have been a somewhat higher favorite if not for the fact that he was coming off a poor showing against MMA star Francis Ngannou and had a worrisome propensity for getting cut. (A cut above Fury’s right eye in sparring pushed back the fight from its original Feb. 11 date.)

Tomorrow’s sequel, bearing the tagline “Reignited,” finds Usyk a consensus 7/5 favorite although those odds could shorten by post time. (There was no discernible activity after today’s weigh-in where Fury, fully clothed, topped the scales at 281, an increase of 19 pounds over their first meeting.)

Given the politics of boxing, anything “undisputed” is fragile. In June, Usyk abandoned his IBF belt and the organization anointed Daniel Dubois their heavyweight champion based upon Dubois’s eighth-round stoppage of Filip Hrgovic in a bout billed for the IBF interim title. The malodorous WBA, a festering boil on the backside of boxing, now recognizes 43-year-old Kubrat Pulev as its “regular” heavyweight champion.

Another difference between tomorrow’s fight card and the first installment is that the May 18 affair had a much stronger undercard. Two strong pairings were the rematch between cruiserweights Jai Opetaia and Maris Briedis (Opetaia UD 12) and the heavyweight contest between unbeatens Agit Kabayal and Frank Sanchez (Kabayel KO 7).

Tomorrow’s semi-wind-up between Serhii Bohachuk and Ismail Madrimov lost luster when Madrimov came down with bronchitis and had to withdraw. The featherweight contest between Peter McGrail and Dennis McCann fell out when McCann’s VADA test returned an adverse finding. Bohachuk and McGrail remain on the card but against late-sub opponents in matches that are less intriguing.

The focal points of tomorrow’s undercard are the bouts involving undefeated British heavyweights Moses Itauma (10-0, 8 KOs) and Johnny Fisher (12-0, 11 KOs). Both are heavy favorites over their respective opponents but bear watching because they represent the next generation of heavyweight standouts. Fury and Usyk are getting long in the tooth. The Gypsy King is 36; Usyk turns 38 next month.

Bob Arum once said that nobody purchases a pay-per-view for the undercard and, years from now, no one will remember which sanctioning bodies had their fingers in the pie. So, Fury-Usyk II remains a very big deal, although a wee bit less compelling than their first go-around.

Will Tyson Fury avenge his lone defeat? Turki Alalshikh, the Chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority and the unofficial czar of “major league” boxing, certainly hopes so. His Excellency has made known that he stands poised to manufacture a rubber match if Tyson prevails.

We could have already figured this out, but Alalshikh violated one of the protocols of boxing when he came flat out and said so. He effectively made Tyson Fury the “A-side,” no small potatoes considering that the most relevant variable on the checklist when handicapping a fight is, “Who does the promoter need?”

The Uzyk-Fury II fight card will air on DAZN with a suggested list price of $39.99 for U.S. fight fans. The main event is expected to start about 5:45 pm ET / 2:45 pm PT.

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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year

Published

3 days ago

December 19, 2024

Arne K. Lang

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Unheralded Bruno Surace went to Tijuana and Forged the TSS 2024 Upset of the Year

The Dec. 14 fight at Tijuana between Jaime Munguia and Bruno Surace was conceived as a stay-busy fight for Munguia. The scuttlebutt was that Munguia’s promoters, Zanfer and Top Rank, wanted him to have another fight under his belt before thrusting him against Christian Mbilli in a WBC eliminator with the prize for the winner (in theory) a date with Canelo Alvarez.

Munguia came to the fore in May of 2018 at Verona, New York, when he demolished former U.S. Olympian Sadam Ali, conqueror of Miguel Cotto. That earned him the WBO super welterweight title which he successfully defended five times.

Munguia kept winning as he moved up in weight to middleweight and then super middleweight and brought a 43-0 (34) record into his Cinco de Mayo 2024 match with Canelo.

Jaime went the distance with Alvarez and had a few good moments while losing a unanimous decision. He rebounded with a 10th-round stoppage of Canada’s previously undefeated Erik Bazinyan.

There was little reason to think that Munguia would overlook Surace as the Mexican would be fighting in his hometown for the first time since February of 2022 and would want to send the home folks home happy. Moreover, even if Munguia had an off-night, there was no reason to think that the obscure Surace could capitalize. A Frenchman who had never fought outside France, Surace brought a 25-0-2 record and a 22-fight winning streak, but he had only four knockouts to his credit and only eight of his wins had come against opponents with winning records.

It appeared that Munguia would close the show early when he sent the Frenchman to the canvas in the second round with a big left hook. From that point on, Surace fought mostly off his back foot, throwing punches in spurts, whereas the busier Munguia concentrated on chopping him down with body punches. But Surace absorbed those punches well and at the midway point of the fight, behind on the cards but nonplussed, it now looked as if the bout would go the full 10 rounds with Munguia winning a lopsided decision.

Then lightning struck. Out of the blue, Surace connected with an overhand right to the jaw. Munguia went down flat on his back. He rose a fraction-of-a second before the count reached “10,”, but stumbled as he pulled himself upright. His eyes were glazed and referee Juan Jose Ramirez, a local man, waived it off. There was no protest coming from Munguia or his cornermen. The official time was 2:36 of round six.

At major bookmaking establishments, Jaime Munguia was as high as a 35/1 favorite. No world title was at stake, yet this was an upset for the ages.

Photo credit: Mikey Williams / Top Rank

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