Because mixed martial arts is basically two people beating the crap out of each other, it’s regulated a tad more heavily than most other sports. And by that I mean there is a state by state collection of athletic commissions that ensure everyone participating in a fight is healthy and won’t die from competing.
Well, that’s the idea, anyway. After Dada 5000 nearly died in Texas, people are questioning the job some states are doing keeping their licensed fighters alive. This fight from Colorado may also make you go hmmmm: last weekend at Spartan Combat League, 68-year-old Ann Perez de Tejada took on the much younger Laura Dettman. We’re unsure of Dettman’s age, but it’s safe to say she’s several decades away from getting de Tejada’s senior citizen’s discount.
Watch in horror as Dettman gives de Tejada no quarter and catches her flush to the face and body with multiple hard shots, taking her down and finishing her with a flurry of ground and pound.
Ann was not seriously hurt in the fight, and the match was presented by the promoters as a positive moment in MMA history. According to unconfirmed reports, de Tejada now holds the record as the oldest person to ever compete in MMA.
Good for her, and I’m all for breaking down barriers, but is this really a record we want to keep pushing? Even Guinness no longer accepts a number of different world records, to keep crazy people from competing for the glory of ‘Most venomous snakebites survived by a child.’ Every punch to that grandma’s stomach had me imagining her organs bruising and internal bleeding commencing. How old is too old?
That’s a question you’d apparently have to ask 50+ times, once for every state commission that regulates the sport.
