“Football is way more dangerous than MMA,” Anders added later, when asked for his thoughts on the escalating injuries in the NFL. “Even if you get knocked out in MMA, it’s just one time, then you get up, you take a couple of months off, let your body heal. In football, you may not get knocked out, but you’re constantly getting hit, getting hit, getting hit, especially if you play that D line, linebacker, running back, offensive line position. Every play it’s a collision and your body doesn’t appreciate that.
“You see guys at 30 years old, their career is done just because of all the hits, all the contact. Just look at the shelf life of the average NFL player, three to five years if you’re lucky; MMA guys, they can play for much longer as long as they’re not one of those guys who play with their hands down and just chuck for the fences and take it to give it.”
If you train smart and only fight once every 4-6 months it would be a lot less cumulative damage than running head to head collisions multiple times a week.
That said, the weight cutting aspect of MMA probably makes it more dangerous.
kungfugrip - you'd have to compare 1 fight vs 1 game. Right now FB is played 16 weeks a year. Fighter fights 2-3 a year. That alone make Fb way more dangerous
Keep in mind 1 game has 50 guys playing, so it isn’t a 1 game vs 1 fight ratio. A better comparison would be the amount of football players playing, multiplied by games played each and compare with MMA fighters and their total number of fights combined. Divide by injury and you come up with a number. The middle line backer is probably involved in more injuries than the kicker, so it varies by position as well. The 110 pound girl also probably concusses less opponents than Francis Ngannou. Perhaps break down by division.
A girl may be considering between the local 2 hand touch mixed gender flag football league and the UFc 145 pound women’s division. For her MMA might be a little more dangerous.