Has Punching Shaped the Evolution of the Human Hand?


(via Getty.)

While we all collectively shake our heads and roll our eyes whenever Dana White breaks out the old “fighting is in our DNA” mantra, a new study argues that The Baldfather might not be that far from the truth. Sort of.

David Carrier, a professor of biology and comparative physiologist at the University of Utah, has spent years studying the impacts of fighting on the evolution of the human hand. Back in 2012, he published a report in the Journal of Experimental Biology that attempted to prove his controversial theory that the human hand — which features a shorter palm, shorter fingers and a longer thumb than our primate ancestors — evolved to meet much more than increased dexterity needs.

”If a fist posture does provide a performance advantage for punching, the proportions of our hands also may have evolved in response to selection for fighting ability, in addition to selection for dexterity,” said Carrier.

The post Has Punching Shaped the Evolution of the Human Hand? appeared first on Cagepotato.


(via Getty.)

While we all collectively shake our heads and roll our eyes whenever Dana White breaks out the old “fighting is in our DNA” mantra, a new study argues that The Baldfather might not be that far from the truth. Sort of.

David Carrier, a professor of biology and comparative physiologist at the University of Utah, has spent years studying the impacts of fighting on the evolution of the human hand. Back in 2012, he published a report in the Journal of Experimental Biology that attempted to prove his controversial theory that the human hand — which features a shorter palm, shorter fingers and a longer thumb than our primate ancestors — evolved to meet much more than increased dexterity needs.

”If a fist posture does provide a performance advantage for punching, the proportions of our hands also may have evolved in response to selection for fighting ability, in addition to selection for dexterity,” said Carrier.

Carrier’s initial experiment was rather simple. Gathering a group of volunteers between 22-50 — all of whom had previous boxing or martial arts experience — Carrier asked them to hit a punching bag with a variety of strikes ranging from an open palm to a closed fist. Unsurprisingly, the closed fist strikes provided three times more force than an open palm strike on average, while “the buttressing provided by a clenched fist” increased the stiffness of the knuckles fourfold and doubled the ability of the fingers to deliver a punching force.

Carrier noted several other significant evolutionary sightings among primates to back his study — mainly, the difference in body size between the sexes (known as sexual dimorphism), which tends to be greater among primate groups where there is more competition between males. Basically, as the human hand was growing more delicate, it was forced to evolve from one based around open palm striking to the closed fist in order to inflict damage on opponents without damaging itself. The fact that no ape other than humans hits with a clenched fist seemed to support Carrier’s theory.

Likewise, Carrier additionally argued that the male human face may have developed a stronger and more prominent jaw, cheeks and brow to withstand more punches in these often ferocious competitions for mates. The anecdotal nature of the evidence gathered to support Carrier’s theory, however, led to it being challenged by a number of his colleagues across the scientific board.

One such challenger was Professor Frank Fish, a biomechanist at West Chester University in Pennsylvania, who argued that, just as the sperm whale’s bulging head had not developed for ramming other male whales to compete for females, the male fist had not evolved to do the same. “I can hit you in the face with this, but it did not evolve for that!” said Fish, suggesting that the effectiveness of the closed fist in combat was merely the result of the evolution of the human hand, not the impetus behind it.

Cut to last week, when Carrier published additional research in opposition to Fish’s claims. (via The Daily Utah Chronicle):

Carrier, with graduate student Joshua Horns, tested the force of three different hand positions when hitting a weight. They observed how much strain was put on the bones, proving that a full fist is better at protecting the hand when in combat.

Using cadaver arms, Horns removed the skin and attached fishing lines to different muscle groups in the arms. Guitar tuners were adjusted to change the tension of the hand and position it as an unclenched fist, a fully clenched fist and an open-palmed slap. The hands swung into a dumbbell and they measured the impact the force had on the bones.

According to the LA Times, the results were quite impressive, if not entirely conclusive.

“As expected, they found that the clenched fist, buttressed with the fingers tightly curled into the palm and the thumb providing reinforcement across the knuckles, reduced deformation in the metacarpals, thus lowering the risk of breakage.”

The main issue continues to be that, as Fish argues, many parts of the human body *can* be used in combat, but did not evolve specifically for that purpose.

One way to dig deeper, Fish said, would be to study fossils from our predecessors, including species in the genus Australopithecus, and see whether there have been changes through time that developed a better-buttressed fist.

Harvard University’s biological anthropologist, Richard Wrangham, also seems to believe that, in order to truly test Carrier’s theory, the evolution of primal female species should be studied as well. Carrier’s tests have thus far been composed using only male test subjects, and should he find a similarly significant evidence about the evolution of the female hand, it would more or less invalidate his “fighting as an evolutionary catalyst” claims.

It’s an interesting idea that Carrier is hypothesizing, to say the very least, and one that he feels has come under such fire because, if proven, could possibly align with those of us who use the “fighting is in our DNA” discourse to justify violence.

“The way I respond to that is by saying understanding is not justification,” said Carrier, who clearly has never painted JUST BLEED across his chest like the true savages among us.

Check out some more of Carrier’s findings over at EurekaAlert.

The post Has Punching Shaped the Evolution of the Human Hand? appeared first on Cagepotato.

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It’s Time to Play the Game: Examining Triple H’s Smack Talk About the UFC

I did it at least nine times. How else would I inherit his empire?

By Jason Moles

Last week MMA Fighting reported that Paul Levesque, better known as Triple H, real life son-in-law of WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, said he thought the UFC should evolve like the pro wrestling juggernaut has, “because quite frankly sometimes the fights are long and boring, guys lying around and sometimes the fights are fast and over in five seconds.”

Is “The Game” right? Does it matter? Before we pass judgment on his comments, let’s take a quick look at a few specific examples he gave for his opinion, then weigh the pros and cons of leaning too far towards Entertainment or Winning.

I did it at least nine times. How else would I inherit his empire?

By Jason Moles

Last week MMA Fighting reported that Paul Levesque, better known as Triple H, real life son-in-law of WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon, said he thought the UFC should evolve like the pro wrestling juggernaut has, “because quite frankly sometimes the fights are long and boring, guys lying around and sometimes the fights are fast and over in five seconds.”

Is “The Game” right? Does it matter? Before we pass judgment on his comments, let’s take a quick look at a few specific examples he gave for his opinion, then weigh the pros and cons of leaning too far towards Entertainment or Winning.

[They should] give more of an entertainment standpoint. Give more form; they just have fighters who walk in in T-shirts and shorts and just stand there and then they fight and then they win and then they go ‘thanks, I’d like to thank my sponsors’ and then they leave. The whole world was up in arms when Brock was flipping people off and was cussing at the beer company because they didn’t give him any money. The whole world was talking about it. They couldn’t wait to see him get beat up. And then he did well, and he beat some guys and then people jump on his bandwagon going ‘Brock’s the greatest.’

It appears that Hunter has taken a few too many chair shots over the years and has become quite confused. You see, his comments do not reflect a desire to see the UFC evolve — rather he would have them take a page out of Vinnie Mac’s script and add a bunch of fabricated drama to invoke human interest so the audience will become emotionally invested in the product.

His only valid point was the comments made about boring fights. Would you not agree? Dana White certainly does. Remember that interview with SI.com when they asked him if it’s a fighter’s job to entertain or just win fights.

Sure. But you’ve got to be exciting! If all we cared about was guys winning fights, you know how many wrestlers could just go lay on a guy? There are tons of wrestlers that could do that. I don’t know. Do you think we’d be talking about all these big plans and all the exciting things that we’re going to be doing if that was the case? I mean, that’s a pretty stupid question. If somebody really asks that question, you’d have to look at them and go, “Are you stupid?” Seriously, it’s a really dumb question.

Hear that Mr. Game? You’re preaching to the choir.

Why do most fighters fight? Money. How can they make more money? Winning, bonuses, and sponsorships. How do these streams of cash grow? Higher TV Ratings and increased PPV buy rates — essentially, you need more people watching your product. How do you get more people to watch your product? Be exciting, which means, according to the average MMA fan, you need to KO your opponent or get them to tap out. Whatever you do, it has to be fast-paced and explosive. Easy enough, right?

What happens if a fighter’s goal is solely to entertain the crowd and look for the Knockout of the Night bonus? We laugh at his attempts to defeat better opposition — guys who actually have a gameplan and well-rounded skill-set, and know more than what they learned in Mike Tyson’s ‘Punch-Out!’. Does this hypothetical slugger have a tendency to give us highlight-reel material from time to time? Sure. But you won’t see him in the main event anytime soon [Ed. note: well…] because although he’s an exciting guy to watch, his skills can only take him so far up the contender ladder. So much for that cash flow increasing.

Conversely, we have “safe” fighters whose only objective is to win, good, bad, or ugly…and it’s usually the latter two. When these guys fight, the numbers don’t suddenly jump off the charts. No one says, “I am pumped to see Jon Fitch fight again,” since the only thing he seems to care about is getting a ‘W’ and that paper. If he only understood that laying someone the eff out would garner him much more money than merely violating him for fifteen minutes, we’d all be winners.

So how do we deal with this contradiction? Should fighters fight to get a win at all costs, even if it means hearing a roar of boos as you smother your opponent for three rounds, or should you call your shot as you step up to the plate, swinging for the fences the entire bout hoping you drop him before he drops you?

So since Triple H brought it up, let’s talk about “evolution,” and what it means in this sport. The UFC has grown and adapted to the changes in our culture by adding rules, protective gear, and a referee. As the organization continued to grow, it became more corporate, breaking away from its blue collar, blood-thirsty past. Dana White and the Fertittas will continue to allow the UFC to evolve, just as the sport of mixed martial arts itself did. Remember when it was a fight between a karate guy and a boxer, fighting to see which style was superior? Now we have guys who can do it all — or at least all that is necessary to eke out a win — squaring off to determine which fighter, not style, is king.

In the end, the only thing that matters is that everyone is satisfied. White wants to be satisfied with the success of the UFC which is ultimately dependent upon its fighters, who want to be satisfied with what they are paid, which largely depends on the fans — who really just want to be satisfied with how enjoyable the fights are. So I just have to ask, ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!

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