Combat sports have become especially popular in recent years, but the newest trend isn’t your typical display of cage match martial arts.
Instead, it’s two competitors standing directly opposed at arm’s length, with their hands behind their backs. Then, one of them delivers a sharp, thunderous open-hand blow to the other person’s cheek. Some fighters are unfazed by this mega slap, while others may be so rocked as to stumble back or even lose consciousness.
What I just described is slap fighting, a sport that UFC President Dana White calls “a home run.” He’s given the UFC’s backing and resources to the Power Slap League, which has been sanctioned to host competitions in Las Vegas by the Nevada Athletics Commission.
Power Slap fights are usually three to five rounds. The fighters take turns hitting each other in the face with an open hand. A fighter has up to a minute to recover and respond after being slapped. Up to 10 points can be awarded per slap based on effectiveness and the defender’s reaction.
Before this current moment of trendiness, snippets of snap fights had gone viral on social media since 2017, with clips of particularly brutal strikes, knockouts, or one Eastern European man whose face swelled to twice its normal size on one side from being slapped there.
Ever since those clips made the rounds up to the present, there’s been plenty of concern about the safety of two people slapping each other as hard as they can; many have seen the sport as heightening the risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease thought to be caused by repeated blows to the head, especially since the combatants don’t wear any protective head gear.
Chris Nowinski, co-founder and CEO of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, calls slap fighting “one of the stupidest things you can do.” And this is not limited to brawny men, women are also engaging in this new martial art.
Nevertheless, the sport has demonstrated nascent popularity. The TBS reality show, “Power Slap: Road to the Title,” has had early rating success. And in Vegas there have already been qualifying events as part of UFC Apex in the lead up to a March 11 special simulcast where champions will be crowned. Can betting be far behind?
