Sam Vasquez and Michael Kirkham.

Two names you likely haven’t heard of, but if you’re a fan of mixed martial arts and the Ultimate Fighting Championship, maybe you should have.

Sam Vasquez and Michael Kirkham are the only two individuals in North America who have died due to injuries that were caused in an MMA match.

Vasquez was fighting his first match in more than a year. He took approximately 20 unanswered shots to the head before the referee stopped the fight — most certainly too late. No illegal blows were landed during the fight. Vasquez died two weeks later.

Kirkham died after his first professional fight. However, it wasn’t likely that the injuries sustained in that fight are what truly caused his death. In Kirkham’s previous, amateur, bout he was illegally harangued in the back of the head at least 30 times.

Most referees would have taken points away from the offending fighter or even disqualified him. Unfortunately, the ref only warned Kirkham’s opponent.

In the time between that fight and his last, Kirkham was supposed to go check in with a doctor twice a month. He went to the doctor once immediately following the fight and never returned.

Both men were conscious immediately following their bouts, but lost consciousness some time later and never regained it. Ultimately, both deaths could have been prevented if the referees in both fights had the proper training.

However, in comparison to other combat sports such as boxing, MMA has a fraction of the deaths that have occurred due to in-ring injuries. Between the years 1998 — the year of the first in-ring MMA death — and 2006, boxing had 70 in-ring deaths, compared to MMA’s single death in that same time frame. Even compared to football, MMA has had 20 fewer deaths due to injury since the year 2000.

The reason boxing has more deaths than MMA is quite clear. In boxing, when a man gets knocked down, he has 10 seconds to rise to his feet. If he succeeds in standing back up, the fight continues. This creates a much higher chance of brain injuries than in MMA, where as soon as a fighter is knocked unconscious, the fight is over — save for an extra punch or two that may sneak in, in the time it takes for the referee to separate the men.

Also, in boxing matches, men often average 200 punches to the head in a standard 12 round encounter. In a UFC heavyweight championship fight between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Tim Sylvia, a total of seven strikes to the head were landed. The reason that happened is because the majority of the fight had taken place on the ground.

This is yet another reason why MMA is safer than other combat sports. Causing an opponent to tap out or submit is another viable way to win, in addition to the knockout. Unlike in boxing, where the only way to win is to punch your opponent in the face until he is knocked unconscious.

However, despite the evidence that MMA is far more safe than prize-fighting, it holds a markedly more brutal public image due to the fact that it often takes place in a cage. People may try to say that fighters are exploited and taken advantage of — all for next to no money — and that the sport should be banned nationwide. However, those people neglect that all fighters understand the inherent risks in their profession, and make a choice to continue fighting.

Fighters train day in and day out.

Fighters understand the destructive potential that they have.

Fighters understand that their opponents have that same capacity to inflict damage upon them.

Fighters often times hold great respect for the men that may stand across the cage from them.

These aren’t bloodthirsty hooligans that are simply in the sport to destroy another man’s livelihood. Saying that these men don’t understand what they’re getting themselves in to is simply disrespectful. Take your frustrations out on the sanctioning bodies that trained the referees who allowed such atrocities to occur, rather than the fighters, promotions or states that allow the fights to take place.