Slapping competition: New sport approved in Nevada

The Nevada Athletic Commission has approved a league for a controversial sport in which one participant has already died. It's about the Power Slap slap league, reports TheGuardian.

Photo: IStock

While much remains unclear about the new league, the slap is what it sounds like: two people take turns hitting each other on the head with an open palm.

Last week, the Nevada State Athletic Commission voted in Las Vegas - a city known for its carefully considered decisions - to control the slap league.

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This year's videos from one competition, the Slapping Championship, show some pretty brutal hand-to-face contact. Some punches result in a knockout. Sitting aside, Arnold Schwarzenegger comments: "Thank God it wasn't me who got slapped."

Hunter Campbell, commercial director of the UFC, said his team spent a year working with commission officials to develop rules for the league based on mixed martial arts (MMA) rules. “It made sense to go into regulation before the start of the sport for all the obvious reasons – #1, the health and safety of the participants,” he said.

The safety rules will include requirements for protective equipment such as mouth guards and earplugs, as well as rules for punching people in the face. Campbell and officials also called for blood tests, brain scans and medical staff on site.

But even MMA enthusiasts have serious doubts.

The main problem is the lack of defensive actions. “All offense and no defense,” writes Trent Rainsmith on the UFC news site Bloody Elbow. “It’s common to see participants suffering severe concussions or losing consciousness from impacts.” In his Substack the Fighting Life, journalist Ben Fowlkes describes the sport as "what you get if you let 13-year-old boys invent a new sport."

On Twitter, Luke Thomas, Combat Sports Analyst for CBS, wrote: “If boxing is about punching, not getting punched, then slapping is the opposite, where getting hit is deliberately orchestrated and unobstructed. The Nevada Commission is pretty shameless." Simon Samano of USA Today wrote, "You might as well be kicking each other in the balls."

Slaps have existed in various forms for many years. But the sport's popularity rose in the early days of the pandemic thanks to viral videos. Poland's Artur "Walusz" Walczak was knocked out several times in the October tournament last year and died in hospital the following month after suffering from a medically induced coma, Rainsmith notes.

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UFC President Dane White has himself been the subject of much controversy. He told the fighters to "shut up and fight" and supported the organization's decision to introduce ex-NFL player Greg Hardy, who was convicted of domestic violence, although the charges were dropped on appeal. He is a vocal supporter of Donald Trump and spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention.

Campbell said the Power Slap League hopes to have a "major broadcast partner" by the end of the year. It has not yet been decided when the tournament will start.

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