Has history repeated itself

I think mma is generally safer in the long run than boxing although it looks utterly barbaric
With boxing you spend your whole career getting punched in the head with gloves on, whereas in mma you spend less time getting punched in the head because you cut quicker as there's no gloves, so fights get finished sooner and most fights end in grappling and submissions anyway.

 

Feck off

 

They do wear light gloves and there are rules, so that's OK then.
They can and often do throttle the opponent until they loose consciousness to get a win.

But it's not a competition between mma and boxing to ban the worst one. I'm not sure I'd ban either tbh, both have their place, nobody is forced to do either and the brain damaged survivors appear to have no regrets. It's all part of life's rich tapestry.
@Tuesday wildchild has a point, natural selection at work perhaps.

 

I think I read that mma gloves were designed primarily to protect the hands from damage rather than the opponent. But my point was that mma is shorter in duration with less head shots than boxing so you're less likely to get long term brain damage