This fact was already discussed during the antiquity.
In the Ancient Greece and then in the Roman Republic and Empire, there were 3 combat sports: wrestling, pugilism (i.e. boxing) and pancratium (i.e. MMA).
Punching was allowed in both pugilism and pancratium, but only the pugilists bandaged their hands with leather straps, to protect them from injuries (analogous to the big boxing gloves and the small MMA gloves of today).
Because of their bandaged hands, the pugilists were using hard strikes to the head much more frequently than the pancratium fighters, so finishing a fight with severe injuries was much more common for pugilists.
Some ancient writers have commented about this and they have mentioned that at big competitions like the Olympic Games it has been decided to schedule the pancratium matches before the pugilism matches, because there were some people who desired to compete in both tournaments. Had pugilism been scheduled the first, there would have been a high risk for them to be injured, preventing them to also compete in pancratium, while with pancratium before, they had good chances to be able to compete in both.
In the Ancient Greece and then in the Roman Republic and Empire, there were 3 combat sports: wrestling, pugilism (i.e. boxing) and pancratium (i.e. MMA).
Punching was allowed in both pugilism and pancratium, but only the pugilists bandaged their hands with leather straps, to protect them from injuries (analogous to the big boxing gloves and the small MMA gloves of today).
Because of their bandaged hands, the pugilists were using hard strikes to the head much more frequently than the pancratium fighters, so finishing a fight with severe injuries was much more common for pugilists.
Some ancient writers have commented about this and they have mentioned that at big competitions like the Olympic Games it has been decided to schedule the pancratium matches before the pugilism matches, because there were some people who desired to compete in both tournaments. Had pugilism been scheduled the first, there would have been a high risk for them to be injured, preventing them to also compete in pancratium, while with pancratium before, they had good chances to be able to compete in both.