Scotland's first slap fighting event coming to Glasgow

A controversial slap fighting event is to be held in a Glasgow university union amid studies into the combat sport being linked to brain trauma.

Slap fighting, considered a largely underground activity, is gaining popularity, amassing millions of viewers online.

The competitors, separated by a waist-level podium, stand across each other and take turns to deliver open-handed blows across the opponent’s face.

According to the official rules, opponents have a few moments to recover, and the fight continues until one of the participants gets knocked out – or until the judges decide the winner.

Flinching, dodging or deflecting blows is not allowed during the contest.

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♬ original sound – BritSlap/SlapfightUK

Organised by BritSlap/SlapFight UK, the headline fight at Glasgow’s University Union on Saturday will see Dan “One Shot” Mitchell against Louis “The Razor” Robinson.

It is the first time an event of its kind has been held in Scotland – promising fans to witness “brutal knockouts” after shows in Liverpool and other parts of the UK.

However, a study published from the University of Pittsburgh last year investigated the link between slap fighting and brain injuries.

Analysing over 333 slaps during fights, researchers looked for visible signs of concussions – ranging from a diminished awareness of their surroundings to a complete loss of responsiveness.

They found more than half of the slap sequences resulted in participants exhibiting visible signs of concussion.

Nearly 80% of the fighters demonstrated a “visible sign of concussion at least once in the series of matches”, according to the study.

Dr Raj Swaroop Lavadi, lead author on the report, said: “Slap fighting may be entertaining to watch as a lay viewer, but as medical professionals, we found some aspects of the competitions to be quite concerning.

“Our end goal is to make all professional sports safer for the neurologic health of the athletes. It is really difficult to ban any sport, but it is possible to raise awareness about the associated harms.

“We were intrigued with the prospect of applying video analysis to identify signs of concussion in a competition that hasn’t previously been studied.”

Glasgow University Union has been contacted for comment.