Can MMA fighters wear contact lenses?

Are you near-sighted? Do you want to practice or compete in MMA? If you answered “Yes” to both questions you’ve probably asked yourself “Can MMA fighters wear contact lenses?” I myself have gone through this question and have been asked this may times over. I’ve been near-sighted for all of my adult life. I’ve been wearing glasses since I was ten years old. My eyesight has degraded to -5.00 on each eye. For those who aren’t too familiar with contact lens and eyeglass prescription, to put that in perspective, that means that I would have to walk within approximately twenty feet of an automobile to make out the letters and numbers on the license plate.

Near-sightedness, or myopia as it is medically known, is a condition where near objects are seen clearly, but far objects seem blurry. This condition affects 25% of all Americans. Near-sightedness is more prevalent in some countries and ethnicities and others. If you are reading this article, it is quite likely that you’ve considered wearing contacts to MMA practice as well.

Why contact lenses? It’s is true that there are alternatives to contact lenses. It is probably obvious that you can’t wear glasses while sparring MMA. It’s true that you can wear sport goggles. I have a pair of sport goggles in my training gear. They are goggles which you can bring to your optometrist who can replace the lenses with some prescription lenses. They’re pretty useful for doing training that doesn’t involve anyone striking or grappling you, like striking or grappling drills, bag work, or mitt work. They’ll do for most of the work you’ll do for MMA training. If you haven’t seen them before, you should try them out. Remember these are not swimming goggles, or protective eye goggles, but sports goggles for contact. I posted a link to them you can go check exactly what they look like. They’re quite cheaply available on shopping websites.

However, these sport goggles won’t always be the answer. If you want to improve you must spar. You should not wear sport goggles for sparring. Of course, you will never be allowed to wear them for fighting either.

If you have eyesight that’s as bad as mine, or worse, you will want to try contact lenses. I think that your fighting style also plays a role. At my the level of my near-sightedness, I can still manage to fight in the cage without them, since I tend to have a style where I just try to close the distance and use my wrestling background. However, if you are a striker. You will want to have clearer vision for pinpoint striking accuracy. If you this kind of fighter, contact lenses can overcome the disadvantage of near-sightedness.

For sparring, if it is essential to your game, you should wear contact lenses. Competition however is different. It depends on the jurisdiction, meaning the state or the country, you are fighting in. There is no short cut or blanket rule to this. You just have to check with the athletic commission which is sanctioning your fight. The good news is, most of them allow contact lenses. As a caveat though, some states won’t allow athletes to fight if they have serious visual acuity issues, even if you could wear contact lenses.

One highly-publicized case of an athletic commission not allowing a fighter to fight is an incident in February 2012 when the Ohio Athletic Commission barred MMA fighter Derek Brunson from competing in Strikeforce against Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza since his eyesight was too bad. While, there was no regulation in Ohio banning a fighter from wearing contacts, Brunson’s eyesight of 20/400 was way beyond what regulators deemed as safe for competition. The Ohio Athletic Commission (website is down at time of writing) had rules in place that barred fighters with “Uncorrected visual acuity of less than 20/200 in either eye or 20/60 with both eyes.” Notably, the state of Nevada, which routinely sanction many of the world’s most important fights through the Nevada Athletic Commission, also has similar rules.

If you are planning to wear contact lenses in sparring or competition, remember that contact lenses can fall out or get knocked out of place. Often times, you will get struck or slammed and you’ll get the feeling that the lens was knocked out. But actually, the contact lens would have just been knocked to another corner of your eye. If you feel your contact lenses have been knocked out from your eyes, be sure you check your eyes very, very carefully that they weren’t actually just knocked to a corner of your eyes. If you have the slightest doubt, seek medical attention immediately after the fight to check. Otherwise, if the contact lens get left in your eyes, you risk needing to get your contacts surgically removed and having to get your eyes infected.

Using contact lenses for sparring is one thing. If they get knocked out, you can probably look for them and stop sparring. However, using contact lenses for competition have some risks involved. As earlier mentioned, the primary concern is them being knocked into another corner of you eye. Another concern is that if they do knocked out, you may not be allowed time to look for them and put them back on. Practically all athletic commissions and fighting leagues like the UFC will not allow you stop, look for the fallen contact lens and put it back on. The best bet is that you’ll have to take the other one out between rounds and keep fighting.

Remember that quite a lot of fighters learn to fight simply with their vision a bit blurrier. As for my professional opinion, as long as you can clearly see the point of the chin at striking distance, your vision is good enough for fighting without needing to improve it with contact lenses. Why the point of the chin? The point of the chin is a good target for a good knockout punch or kick and it will be the smallest target you will need pinpoint in an MMA match. I would usually have sports goggles (again check them out if you aren’t sure what they are) for most of training or competition as I described earlier. I would then just put them aside right before I start sparring or start competing.

Of course, your personal comfort would trump whether or not you should decide to use contact lenses. If you think they will affect your performance, and you just feel plain bothered by not wearing contacts and seeing most distant things blurry during a flight, by all means consider wearing contact lenses.

If you do decided to use contact lenses, be sure you follow guidelines to keep you safe while using them. Ask your opthalmologist and check out articles online for contact lens care and use. Remember to at all times, err on the side of caution. No MMA competition in your life will ever be worth risking your eyesight.