Cage Fighting Doctor

It came out of the blue -a request to be the doctor in a cage fighting competition At the Sydney Entertainment Centre. My knowledge of this extreme sport was fairly limited, apart from the hysteria I'd seen on TV. Mixed martial arts is a full contact combat sport that permits all sorts of martial arts to be used together. It involves striking and grappling techniques, so it looks like kick boxing, regular boxing and many other fighting traditions rolled into one.

These amazing pugilists have been around since the time of the ancient Greeks; ‘PanKration’ was introduced in 648 BC. What was known then as the most extreme combat sport and now is one of the fastest-growing spectator sports in the world. The program in Sydney was to be broadcast live on pay-TV in the United States. This meant the fighters had travelled from all parts of the world to beat each other up here under my watchful gaze. Men from America, Brazil, UK Australia and Samoa were matched against each other in 10 separate bouts

New South Wales combat sports coordinator Craig Waller brought me rapidly up to speed at the weigh-in held the day before the bouts were to begin. These were big men. They all had an entourage of coaches, attractive women and hangers on. Most were heavily tattooed and many of the Brazilians had religious motifs across their backs and they had been fighting since they were in their early teens in favelas.

Luckily I brought a large cuff for checking blood pressure as most of the men had biceps this size of my thighs All 20 fighters had to be checked for HIV and other blood-borne infections before being were weighed. Some had spent hours in the sauna trying to shed weight. On examination, they were all extremely fit men. Nobody swore and no one spat on the floor. I expected exponents of the martial arts to be wild men, but somewhat surprisingly, they were charming, well mannered professionals.

When I cheated and watched a short bout of cage fighting on YouTube, I thought it was a free for all, no holds barred competition, something like human cockfighting. I soon discovered that it is a strictly regulated and controlled sport.
Assisted by my practice nurse Matt and medical student Nici, we entered the waiting rooms of the Entertainment centre armed with a hefty medical kit that contained sutures, local anaesthetic and skin glue. We wandered through the waiting areas observing the fighters prepare themselves for the combat ahead. A number of them were meditating, others shadowboxing and some dancing to Brazilian music. Hooded tracksuits were the fashion order of the day. Young female dancers in skimpy outfits completed the picture. They were, apparently, employed solely to entertain the punters between rounds and encourage the innumerate audience to count to five.

A cage fighter enters the ring with no boots and only half gloves. Each fight consisted of three five-minute rounds with a minute in between where the seconds patch up their battered protégés.
The frenzied brutal nature of these bouts up close at ringside was mesmerising. Four paramedics and two ambulances were in attendance and the screams of the crowd soon had my pulse rate racing. Ringside doctors must observe the fight closely and have the capacity to shut it down anytime, should a combatant be seriously injured or unable to continue. Fighters can use their fists and feet and entire body weight because their opponent to either be knocked down or submit. At the beginning of each fight, the judges and referee look to the doctor for the thumbs up sign to indicate that proceedings can begin.
The star attraction was Ken Shamrock who aged 46, still managed to trade blows with a younger opponent. He had a considerable fan club in the audience.
After each fight I would return to the change rooms with my nurse and med student to check for damage. We reduced a dislocated finger and glued a number of facial wounds after applying local adrenaline on a swab. There was a palpable exhaustion with dazed men and their support teams hovering around.

Advocates of cage fighting reckon it channels young men's aggressive impulses and the training provides them with a tough discipline. Others suggest it is barbaric and risks serious head injury. Certainly, the broken noses and cauliflower ears testify to sheer tenacity of the bouts. For me it was one of the most exciting experiences of my medical career, but not one I could repeat on a regular basis without ulcer medication and tranquillizers.