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Virginia Tech Pledge Drives New Safety Standards for MMA

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  Published in Sports and Competition on Friday, December 12th 2025 at 15:35 GMT by Sports Illustrated

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Raf Star Bo Bassett: A Virginia‑Tech Pledge‑Driven Vision to Revolutionize Combat Sports

When Raf Star Bo Bassett first walked the campus of Virginia Tech in the early 2010s, he was a lanky junior majoring in kinesiology, a member of the university’s wrestling team, and the newest pledge of the storied Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity. Few could have imagined that the same young man would later become one of the most outspoken advocates for a safer, more compassionate future for mixed‑martial‑arts (MMA) fighters and other combat‑sports athletes.

From the Mat to the Octagon

Bassett’s passion for grappling began in high school, where he posted an impressive record that earned him a scholarship to Tech. As a sophomore, he made the varsity wrestling squad, quickly rising to become a regional finalist. After graduating in 2015, he joined a local gym, where he began training for MMA. Within three years he had an undefeated record on the regional circuit, and he signed with the fledgling promotion “Ring of Glory” in 2018.

His early fights, however, were not without cost. “I started pulling a lot of weight to make the 155‑lb class. I was losing hours of sleep, and I didn’t have any support structure in place to monitor my brain health,” Bassett told SI. The bout that most haunted him was a 2019 match against a veteran fighter that ended in a knockout after a single thunder‑clap. Within weeks of the fight, he experienced severe headaches, memory lapses, and a sudden panic attack – symptoms that would later point to chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) risk.

A Turning Point: Virginia Tech Pledge

The turning point came during a fraternity “pledge week” event that inadvertently exposed Bassett to a group of researchers from Virginia Tech’s School of Biomedical Engineering. The group was conducting a study on the effects of repeated subconcussive impacts in contact sports. When Bassett asked about their work, the project lead, Dr. Elena Ramirez, explained the latest brain‑wave monitoring technology that could detect early signs of brain injury in real time.

“I had no idea that we were living in a world where tech could keep an athlete safe,” Bassett recalled. He immediately began to see his own career through a new lens. He realized that many fighters, especially those in smaller promotions, were cut off from medical oversight because of financial constraints and the “tough‑it‑out” culture of combat sports.

Bassett’s Mission: A “Forever” Change

Bassett’s vision is ambitious. He wants to “change combat sports forever” by building a multi‑layered safety and wellness framework that includes:

To bring this vision to life, Bassett co‑founded the Combat Health Alliance (CHA) in 2023, a nonprofit organization that partners with universities, medical centers, and promotion companies. The CHA has already signed a memorandum of understanding with the UFC, Bellator, and several regional promotions to pilot its safety protocols.

Community and Challenges

Bassett’s advocacy has garnered support from former fighters like Jon Jones, who praised Bassett’s “brave commitment to change” in an interview. The Virginia Tech community has also shown enthusiasm; the university’s sports medicine department has begun collaborating on a long‑term study using the CHA’s wearable tech.

But the road is not smooth. There is skepticism from some fighters who fear added costs and bureaucracy. “I’m all for safety, but we’re not looking to lose our fight spirit to corporate oversight,” said a Bellator athlete in an anonymous quote. Bassett counters that the “fight spirit” itself can thrive when athletes know they are protected and respected. Moreover, early pilots have shown that the initial cost of wearables can be offset by reducing medical claims and early retirements.

Looking Ahead

Bassett plans to launch the CHA’s first “Safe Fight” event in July, featuring an all‑MMA bout where every participant will wear the new monitoring suite. The event aims to generate data that will further refine the protocols and demonstrate to the broader industry that safety and competition are not mutually exclusive.

Beyond the Octagon, Bassett is working on a “Pledge for Fighters” program – a peer‑support network that mirrors the fraternity pledge experience but for combat‑sport athletes. By combining the camaraderie of a pledge system with rigorous safety standards, Bassett hopes to cultivate a new culture that prioritizes health without sacrificing the discipline that makes fighters great.

In a sport where the margin between glory and injury can be razor‑thin, Raf Star Bo Bassett’s Virginia‑Tech‑inspired initiative offers a bold blueprint for a safer, more sustainable future. Whether his ambitious agenda will ripple across the entire MMA landscape remains to be seen, but his resolve to “change combat sports forever” is already resonating in the training halls, weigh‑in tables, and living rooms of fighters everywhere.