Noble show of sportsmanship in Germany

To the uninitiated, mixed martial arts looks like two people trying to hurt each other. The real fight is of course internal, but you have to do it to know it. However, there was a recent occurrence in Mannheim, Germany that well illustrates the nobility of the sport.

It happened on December 12, 2016, at Hafenkeilerei 5, on the 10th fight of the night, on a 14 fight mixed MMA and kickboxing card. Pro lightweights Arkadiusz Wroblewski and Paata Tschapelia were engaged in good scrap when the former threw a looping overhand right, and then, undoubtedly due to a pre-existing condition, his left shoulder dislocates.

It happens at 4:41 here. Wroblewski backs off and can be seen shaking his arm. He turns away, and rather than attack, Tschapelia steps back. The referee does not take charge of the situation, but rather waves his hand ineffectually, appears to call a time out, and then walks over to the injured fighter. The dislocation is visible.

Wroblewski goes to his corner and asks the referee to yank the arm back into place, but gets a shake of the head. Then Tschapelia amiably darts over and does the medical honors. The crowd cheers appreciatively and after some more time, the fight continues.

An energized Tschapelia now turns it on with strikes and ends the fight just under three minutes later. Official time of the stoppage was 3:52 of Round 1, via KO, winner Paata Tschapelia, of the fight, and of life.

The entire fight can be viewed here.

Fights have taken place under the unified rules where there was an elbow dislocation and it self-corrected. However, in the vast majority of cases, the fight would have been stopped and awarded to the shorter fighter.

For the record, do not treat shoulder dislocations in this manner. While it usually works, and if you hang around a fight gym long enough you have seen it work, there are potential complications some of them serious. Yanking on it is sort of like taking the average doctor and putting he or she into an MMA cage to fight. Where your body is concerned, let medical professionals handle medical issues.