Mixed Martial Arts Fighter Susceptibility to In-Fight Concussion

Abstract

PURPOSE: To investigate whether susceptibility to concussion with and without loss of consciousness (LOC) increases as multiple concussions are experienced among mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters. It was hypothesized that by using publicly available data, an analysis of in-fight concussion susceptibility would demonstrate that fighters became more susceptible to in-fight concussions after experiencing one or more in-fight concussions. Findings will provide information that may assist with development efforts to establish Warrior and athlete return-to-duty assessments, fitness-for-duty standards, and injury prevention countermeasures and requirements. METHODS: For this IRB-exempt project, researchers from the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory (USAARL) reviewed fight records from 20 years of archived online data. Fights resulting in LOC, (knock out [KO]), or suspected concussion (technical KO [TKO]) were flagged, and technicians later reviewed video footage to determine if the KO or TKO was the result of a significant blow to the head. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) for concussion susceptibility was completed, and a within-groups test was conducted to determine if fighters were significantly more or less susceptible to concussion after receiving their first suspected in-fight concussion. RESULTS: Concussion susceptibility ratios were computed for 51 MMA fighters, all of whom had at least one suspected in-fight concussion and had fought in at least one MMA fight after receiving their first suspected concussion. Concussion susceptibility ratios were simply a ratio of the number of concussions to number of total fights, with separate ratios conducted for fights up to the first concussion (pre) and for fights after the first concussion (post). A one-way repeated-measures ANOVA on pre- and post-concussion susceptibility ratios demonstrated that fighters experienced a lower rate of concussions per fight following their first suspected in-fight concussion. CONCLUSIONS: The lower number of concussions may be explained by increased awareness and caution taken by fighters to avoid additional concussions, which does not exclude or address the possibility of a physiologically based predisposition to future concussion following an initial concussion event.