Walk into most major MMA gyms on a sparring day, and you’ll see a lot of uniformity in terms of protective gear. This is true whether you’re in northern California or south Florida or anywhere in between, where fighters typically don shinpads and boxing gloves to cover their weapons of choice, with cups and mouthpieces to guard the important stuff behind the scenes. What’s much less predictable is what, if anything, they’ll wear to protect their heads. In many of MMA’s top gyms, the question of whether to wear protective headgear in sparring often seems to be left up to the individual. Some fighters opt to wear it, others don’t, and coaches generally let them make their own choices on the matter
Original post:
Does headgear reduce brain trauma? Study says maybe, but not all fighters convinced – MMA Junkie