By Sports Correspondent, Newstexts.com
When Kabiru Adediran stepped up to the podium at Power Slap 17 in March 2026 and delivered the kind of strike that sent his opponent tumbling and dislocated the man’s arm in the process, the clip went viral across Nigeria within hours. The man they call “The Nigerian Hulk” — a middleweight competitor with fists like sledgehammers and a debut record of one win, no losses — had announced himself to the world in the most dramatic fashion imaginable.
Making his promotion debut at Power Slap 17, Kabiru “Hulk” Adediran put his power on full display in a TKO victory over opponent Daniyar Shakharov. The Sun Nigeria, Vanguard and a cascade of social media accounts rushed to share the footage. Nigeria had a new combat sports star — or so it seemed.
But behind the celebrations, a harder conversation is taking place. Because the sport that has made Adediran famous overnight is one that leading neuroscientists say is causing measurable, documented brain damage to the athletes who compete in it. And it is a conversation that Nigeria, now with a stake in the sport’s future, can no longer afford to ignore.
What Slap Fighting Actually Is
In competitive slap fighting, competitors stand across a waist-level podium and take turns to deliver open-handed blows across the opponent’s face. Flinching, dodging or deflecting blows is not allowed during the contest. The bout continues until one participant is knocked out, or until the judges decide the winner.
The sport started as a viral sensation among Russian strongmen before spreading into Eastern Europe and eventually the United States. Its commercial breakthrough came when Dana White — billionaire president of the multi-billion-dollar Ultimate Fighting Championship — launched Power Slap in 2022. The Nevada Athletic Commission introduced specific safety rules, such as prohibiting strikes below the chin and requiring open-handed slaps, making it the first regulated slap fighting league in America.
Adediran, listed on the Power Slap website as competing in the middleweight division with a record of one win, zero losses, is one of the league’s newest signees. His nickname and his performance have already earned him a following that stretches well beyond Las Vegas.
The Science That Supporters Cannot Dismiss
The excitement surrounding Adediran’s debut comes at a moment of intensifying scientific scrutiny of the sport he has just entered.
In September 2024, the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine published the first peer-reviewed academic study of competitive slap fighting in JAMA Surgery — and the findings made grim reading. Trained reviewers watched videos of slap fighting competitions and analysed 333 slaps. They recorded visible signs of concussion — from diminished awareness of the environment to a complete loss of responsiveness.
After reviewing 78 fights involving 56 contestants, the researchers found that concussive signs were observed after 29.1% of individual slaps and 51.8% of sequences. Of the 56 contestants, 78.6% exhibited at least one concussive sign.
“Clinically, concussion can show up in different ways, but each can result in short- or long-term disability and socioeconomic distress,” said Dr Nitin Agarwal, associate professor of neurological surgery and the study’s senior author. “As a physician who has a background in martial arts and is passionate about combat sports, I remain concerned regarding the frequency of overt signs of concussion among slap fighters.”
Experts warn that being struck on the cheek and the side of the head is particularly dangerous because it causes the brain to twist inside the skull, which can damage nerve fibres. “These people pass out from one blow,” Dr Agarwal said. “In reality, they suffered a traumatic brain injury.”
A Death That Should Have Been a Warning
The medical community’s alarm is not new. It was first widely raised in 2021, after Polish slap fighter Artur Walczak suffered a brain bleed during a match in which he was knocked out and lost consciousness. He was rushed to hospital and died there.
That death did not stop the sport’s expansion. It did not prevent Power Slap from launching on American television. And it has not slowed the spread of slap fighting leagues into Europe, South America, South Africa — or now, into Nigeria through the participation of fighters like Adediran.
Banned in Scotland, Growing in Nigeria
The contrast in how different parts of the world are responding to slap fighting could scarcely be sharper.
In February 2025, the first ever slap fighting competition planned for Scotland was cancelled following a health warning from Dr Willie Stewart, a leading brain injury researcher at the University of Glasgow. He said it was “inconceivable” the bouts should go ahead, given the elevated risk of concussion. A spokesperson for Glasgow University Union confirmed the event had been cancelled “in discussion with organisers.”
SlapFight UK, the British league which organised the event, has no independent regulation or governance. The episode highlighted how far behind regulatory frameworks have fallen compared to the sport’s rapid commercial growth.
In Nigeria, by contrast, Adediran’s viral debut has been met almost entirely with celebration. Questions about what repeated participation in Power Slap could do to his long-term brain health have been largely absent from the coverage.
The Debate Over a Ban
Supporters of slap fighting, including Dana White, argue that its risks are lower than those of boxing, where participants endure a far greater number of strikes per match. It is a claim the research community disputes. In boxing, fighters can slip, block and clinch. In slap fighting, they can only absorb.
For a sport to be banned in the United States, it must be shown to be extremely dangerous for participants and to pose a threat to others — a threshold that has, so far, allowed slap fighting to operate legally in states that have sanctioned it.
The University of Pittsburgh researchers say their end goal is not necessarily prohibition. “It is really difficult to ban any sport, but it is possible to raise awareness about the associated harms,” said lead researcher Raj Swaroop Lavadi. Their team is now working to measure and analyse the physical impact of an average slap using mouthpieces similar to those used by professional American football players, with the goal of helping inform participants, officials, and ringside medics.
What Adediran’s Success Really Signals
Kabiru Adediran did not create slap fighting, and he is not responsible for its risks. He is a competitor in a legally sanctioned sport, pursuing an opportunity that has placed him — improbably, suddenly — in front of an international audience.
But his story is also a mirror. It reflects a sport growing faster than the medical understanding of what it does to the human brain. It reflects a global audience hungry for extreme content, and promoters skilled at supplying it. And it reflects a regulatory environment that has struggled, in country after country, to keep pace.
The Nigerian Hulk has arrived on the world stage. The question is whether the sport he competes in will still be standing — in its current, unprotected form — by the time his career reaches its peak.
Newstexts.com | Sports Desk
