A former slap fighter turned referee has moved to allay fears about the safety of the viral craze.
Niki “The Anvil” Anderson oversaw proceedings at Liverpool’s BOXPARK, as BritSlap hosted its first event in front of a live crowd, which saw Louis “The Razor” Robinson crowned the first ever UK slap fighting Heavyweight Champion at SlapFightUK 4.
This came in the wake of a report published by University of Pittsburgh Neurosurgeon Dr. Nitin Agarwal and postdoctoral researcher Dr. Raj Swaroop Lavidi documenting the serious dangers of Power Slap, Dana White’s power slapping organisation.
While the study focused on US fights, according to Anderson BritSlap are doing all they can to ensure fighter safety and he insists the company is one of the safest promoters out there.
He told Merseysportlive: “There are general rules across slap fighting, we’ve re-written ours in a way that are even stricter that make us even safer.”
The research, published in the JAMA medical journal, analysed 78 fights between 56 contestants, involving 333 slaps. They found that more than half of the fighters had visible signs of concussion, with many showing signs of impaired movement following a hit or had a vacant stare.
Concussion is a traumatic injury that occurs when the brain moves inside the hard skull. While a single concussion won’t usually result in permanent brain damage. Repeated blows can cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and can get worse over time.
To prevent this, the UK promotion have implemented various measures including limiting the number of contests a fighter can have.
Anderson said: ”One of the main things we do is you can only fight once in every three months which is done to stop compounding injuries such as concussions.
“We have paramedics on site, they have their own response vehicles, and we talk to these guys (the fighters) every week to go over the rules and how we want them to do stuff, and how things are done.”
The sport has had a meteoric rise in popularity over the last few years, with White’s Power Slap consistently drawing in around 250,000 viewers, while also boasting over three million subscribers and almost 1.5 billion views owing to their viral clips.
Having more eyeballs on the sport has led to an increasing number of people wanting to get involved. While there will always be differing levels of stringency in promotions when it comes to recruiting fighters, having the right person for the job is crucial to Britslap. They currently take applications through their social media sites such as Instagram and Twitter, but not just anyone can get involved.
Anderson emphasised how crucial correct recruitment is. He said: “Just because someone comes to us doesn’t mean we’ll let them fight either.
“I can’t tell you the amount of people that we’ve said sorry to. So if either of us get an inkling of a bad vibe or any doubts, we don’t even entertain it because safety is important to us.”
