If you ever saw a UFC fight, then you know the risk that these fighters carry when they enter the ring.
Many of the time an accident low blows takes place in the ring that catches every single person’s attention.
You don’t need to have a black belt in jiu-jitsu to know that they hurt a lot. These are the situations that make the audience of MMA fights ask certain questions themselves about the safety of the UFC fight.
The question here we are going to discuss is Do MMA fighters wear groin protection before the fight?
So, do Fighters in the MMA arena wear groin protection? YES, they do, the Athletic commission has allowed the use of protection for the groin as mandatory for everyone. The fighter must feel comfortable with the decision. But there are some rules to groin protection that should be followed if the fighter wants to wear it. The cup must not have any extra padding or make of material that is considered prohibited for the MMA fight.
While some fighters will not like the idea of wearing a cup in a mixed martial art match.
The UFC officials have taken stricter action towards this issue. As there are many matches where minor accidents can lead to disaster events, groin strikes are one of the rare things that happen frequently between PPVs.
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It puts the health of the fighter in jeopardy, this is the reason why the officials at UFC have taken a stricter position than they used to before. Now they have laid out rules that will be considered as protection for fighters above anything else.
History of groin protection in UFC
MMA came to the scene in the early 1990s. Back then the sport was lesser known in the large community. There are only a few people who know about the sport and what it is all about.
In 1900, MMA fights had no rules, referees to carry the fight forward through accidents. Back then only rules the fighter follows are no eye-gouging, fish hooking, and biting.
These are the three actions that fighters should never do on stage when they are fighting their opponent.
The early days of UFC fighting, where groin strikes were not illegal. But the fans of MMA completely hated the idea of using groin strikes to win the match. Many considered this move to be dirty to use in a fight. But times have changed, so are the views of UFC on these issues. Now they put the health of fighters above anything else.
What happens after a groin strike?
It is illegal for any fighter to use a groin strike in the match. If the strike was intentional, then the fighter will receive a penalty.
When the strike happens, it is the job of referees to give out their side of view.
It will be their job to take proper action in this scenario. But one thing for sure, when the strike happens, the fighter who receives groin damage can take about 5 minutes to compose themselves before starting the fight again.
Violating the groin strike rule will result in the fighter getting one point removed from the total score.
The point deduction will have an impact on the results of the match. If the fighter who receives the groin strike is unable to move or poorly composes themselves in the match, then the fighter who made the strike could get disqualified for their action.
Do female fighters get to wear a cup?
No, UFC rules and guidelines prohibit women from wearing a protective cup on their bodies.
During the fight, female fighters are not allowed to wear cups.
They are only required to wear a shirt, chest protection, short, open-fingered gloves, and a mouthguard.
But some people have raised their voices to make female fighters wear the cups too.
Even on women, any sort of strike to that region will leave lasting damage that can be very difficult to recover from.
Females in UFC wear cups, but the cups that they wear are completely different compared to the cups male fighters wear in the ring.
There is a sports cup available for women to stop abdominal pain, bleeding, bruising, and other conditions that will eventually show up after a groin strike.
Female fighters also suffer a lot from not wearing a piece of proper groin equipment as well.
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What is the benefit of wearing a CUP?
The life of an MMA fighter is not easy( think to the risk that they encounter when cutting the weight ), to earn the title of Fighter they have to put a lot of work and time into the game to see themselves on the big stage. The fighters here train every single month leading up to the fight.
In the training days, they are known to raise the endurance and tolerance level high to deflect or avoid the blows coming from other opponents. There is always unpredict ableness on the opponent in the match, whether if the illegal strike they throw harms in your sensitive area or not.
This can have serious ramifications on the fighter’s career along with the match. Not weaning a cup will involve a professional team to look at the injury. This will happen every single round and match. Wearing a cup will get rid of all these hassles instead of that you can go back to focusing on what matters is winning. The major benefit of wearing groin protection is to keep the sensitive area of the body without causing any harm.
Do wear groin Real protect the fighter?
Sometimes even wearing a cup, a simple blow will leave a cause of pain and injury. It becomes more essential to protect yourself from accidents. Groin strikes are illegal in UFC fights of any kind and form. But most of the groin strikes that do happen in the octagon happen unintentionally than knowingly.
Accidents will happen, that is why wearing a cup will keep you from getting hurt. The reason is to avoid the high damage to settle with a minor one. Wearing a cup will avoid the high damage that people get from a leg kick to the lower area.
If you ever saw a UFC fight, then you know what kind of attack that gets thrown at that area of man’s body.
Wearing a cup will significantly lower the damage done to the groin by a lot. If you are wondering about other benefits from wearing a cup, here they are:
Protect from high damage
An unintentional leg kick to the groin will keep any men down let alone getting a leg kick from a professional UFC fighter. While the strikes to the groin have been banned but nobody in the world can stop the accidents from taking place anywhere.
Wearing a cup will protect the groin from taking high damage and in a submission, it will do a tremendous job in preventing any more injuries to the groin. Submission like knee bars or triangles will leave severe injury and harm to the groin. Wearing a protective cup will keep the pain off your groin. So, you can concentrate on the fight rather than protecting your groin area all the time.
All at once
UFC fights include a lot of movements from the fighters, it becomes rather important to keep everything in one place. It gets difficult to control the sensitive region of the body without any equipment holding all of it down to one place.
Fighters will be more reluctant to use their moves in the ring if they are paying most of their attention to protect their groin. Groin protection will help the fighter to keep everything in place and won’t put any limitation on the movement of the fighter.
Improved Stretching
Cups would also allow the fighters to move freely in the arena, which will lead to a much better performance by the fighter in the ring. Here fighters will be able to stretch out without worrying about their groin area. This will prevent strain and other muscle-related injuries from taking place.
These are the benefits that come with proactive cups on the groin. It is absolutely necessary for the fighter to have some kind of protection on their groin before they step into the ring. It is not going to be easy avoiding damage and paying attention to the match, while in your brain you know, the accident kick will come in any minute. Cups allow the fighter to move freely and do every bit of exercise without limiting their movement in any fashion.
Conclusion
Fighters wear cups to protect themselves from unintentional harm and injuries that can leave permanent marks on the body. Which is something that no fighters can afford. Getting into the UFC and then becoming a champion is the wish on every fighter’s to-do list. Cutting the career short from injury is not what every fighter wants to do in their life. Having a protective cup will help the fighter to keep the groin related injuries at bay.