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I agree that football will eventually die out mainly for the injury concern, and that perhaps it is a matter of when not if soccer manages to replace it.

But on the other hand, MMA is immensely popular and replacing boxing and/or attracting new fans that boxing no longer was appealing to.

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But there's no shame in tapping out of an MMA elbow lock because fighters (rightly) want to retain the use of both arms. I have never seen a boxer tap out. Refs will sometimes end a match when they want to save a boxer from getting beaten to death in the ring, but the boxers are usually reluctant to leave the fight.

Boxers certainly take a knee or quit in the corner, but it is frowned upon. MMA is just a completely different dynamic. There is no standing count and the trend of refs stopping fights early on flurries of arm punches is undeniable.

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