The stigmas associated with mixed martial arts are hard to shake but
quite easy to dispel. Many ask how could anyone want to watch, much
less regulate, a sport that allows men to punch, kick, elbow, knee
and incapacitate their opponents. Moreover, you often hear detractors
claim that this spectacle shouldn't even be considered a sport and
should be forced to cease to exist. Much like many other events and
issues in our society, the media isn't doing their part to educate us
consumers. The majority of the opinions and ill will harbored by
people towards mixed martial arts, honestly comes from simply being
uninformed.
One can only imagine the amount of deaths that there have been in a
sport that allows such violence. Any sport that allows you to knock
or choke out your opponent must have the highest death toll and
critical injury rate of all sports. I hate to break it to all the
sceptics but the fact is, there has never been a death in a
sanctioned mixed martial arts fight. There has in fact been one death
in all of mixed martial arts but this occurred many years ago in an
unsanctioned fight. You may be wondering what the difference is. A
sanctioning body is an organization that is responsible for the
proper implementation of weight limits, rules and medical
examinations. They make sure that the 2 fighters are within their
weight limits and that they're physically fit to fight. The event
where the participant died did not have a sanctioning body, which in
turn means it didn't have a proper weigh in or physical. The opponent
died of a blood clot they had sustained from a fight in an earlier
event. The fact is if the event had been sanctioned, this fighter
would have had to have a physical which includes a brain scan. This
would have resulted in the fighter not being cleared to fight. Mixed
martial arts actually uses the same sanctioning bodies that boxing
does....

http://groups.msn.com/martialartsqen