Mixed
Martial Arts And Society
As a young
lad, there weren’t many things I enjoyed more than a quality fight.
Now, I’m not talking about playground fistfights or anything
serious like that, I’m speaking more of the fun wrestling matches
and battles my friends and I would often have. For example, it would
be a Saturday morning and my friends and I would just finish watching
some WWF on channel five and we’d run down to the basement and have
some skirmishes of our own. I was always an enormous fan of
submissions and realized at an early age that I had a talent for
locking them in, but when having the multi person rumbles we often
did, it was quite difficult to hook in a sharpshooter (since you
would soon be hit by one of the other participants). I also enjoyed
striking and would regularly have boxing matches with the crew, which
were always very fun (I was an odd child who actually appreciated
getting hit in the head). The biggest problem I had was finding a
common ground between the submission game that intrigued me and the
striking that I adored so much. Then, when I was in fourth grade, I
got my first taste of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA), which brought much
joy to my life, though most of society would not join me in
celebration.
My beloved New York Rangers would
eventually win the Stanley Cup that year, and my Knicks would go on
to lose in game seven of the NBA Finals, but seeing the UFC for the
first time is something that opened my eyes to a wonderful sport that
I’m obsessed with to this very day. The first UFC events were very
raw and less skill oriented, but the pure violence of these bloody
battles had me hooked. Whenever I got the chance to watch a tape of a
show I would eat it up and sit in genuine happiness. The UFC would go
through some problems and would soon lose it’s rights to air on
pay-per-view, but it would eventually come back with new regulations
and much more talented fighters. I would eagerly watch how these
fighters pulled off slick submissions and powerful ground and pound,
and I would work hard to emulate their movements, and surprisingly I
picked up on them quite nicely. MMA had evolved from a blood sport to
a true sport, and it was shockingly much more enjoyable. However, I
was hesitant on letting my friends know of my passion for the sport
as I already received enough ridicule for enjoying all the wrestling
on TV.
Eventually, college hit and MMA started to become
more of a mainstream sport with the addition of The Ultimate Fighter
series, and now people began to talk about it. I happily spoke of
what I knew about the sport, and people were amazed at my knowledge,
attaching themselves to my every word. Being able to speak of the
sport I loved was very enjoyable for me, and watching MMA grow was
simply amazing. Unfortunately, many people still viewed it as a blood
sport between animals in a cage; they couldn’t be further from the
truth. Hearing these people, ignorant to what MMA actually was, made
me sick, forcing me to continuously defend the sport and show these
folks the light. While some scoffed at my words, most opened their
ears, many becoming fans of MMA themselves.
Using the
UFC as my prime example, I would like to bring up a few things that
the general public complains about. The fact that the sport is fought
in a cage (in a lot of organizations), it gives off the feeling of a
gladiatorial battle to the death. If you throw in the blood and
screaming fans, you can get an understanding of how the coliseum feel
is given off, but it’s a wrong characterization. The cage allows
the crowd to see the action and keeps the fighters within the
fighting area (which a ring is less capable of doing… though many
MMA organizations do use a ring). Also, while the original
competitions pretty much had no rules, the sport was eventually
regulated, turning it into one of the highest skilled contests out
there. The sight of blood terrifies many, but it is something that
exists in every sport, whether it be football or basketball, so I
feel it is an invalid excuse as to why MMA shouldn’t be considered
for mainstream status; heck, if someone goes sliding in a badminton
match they could easily scrape up their knee, causing some blood to
flow, and I’m pretty sure that badminton is not a extremely violent
sport. By insulting the sport based on certain visuals, one is
basically using an unjust form of discrimination against something
that they don’t have much knowledge on, and that’s truly
pathetic.
With everything I’ve stated, the one fact
that annoys me the most is that our society accepts the sport of
boxing (which they should, it’s a beautiful sport that I enjoy very
much), yet they give absolutely no respect to MMA. Are these
conservative jackasses serious?! Boxing is much more dangerous than
MMA as the contestants are constantly receiving blows to their head,
and for a much longer period of time. While elbows and knees are
allowed in MMA, bouts are shorter, fighters can grapple (avoiding
further punishment in most cases), submissions are common, and the
referees are right there to stop a match before massive damage is
caused. Furthermore, there has only been one death in a sanctioned
MMA bout (which recently occurred in one of the smaller shows), while
there have been numerous deaths in boxing over the decades.
Another thing that irritates me is when someone says that the
ground fighting in MMA is boring; are you kidding me?! First off, if
you cannot find the true beauty in the ground game, then watch
boxing, because you’re simply a one dimensional imbecile who can’t
understand a sport where you need multiple talents in order to be
successful (it’s like comparing a basketball player to a hockey
player; the hockey player is a much better athlete, not to mention
they’re much tougher, there’s no argument). The ground game is
simply another talent that’s necessary for success in the great
sport of MMA. It’s a brilliant chess match where each part of the
body is a piece, and if you give up the wrong piece, it’s
checkmate. I’m a huge fan of the standup part of fighting, but I
think the ground game is more technical and beautiful in so many
ways, which is why MMA is so wonderful; not to mention flash
submissions don’t occur like flash knockouts do. To truly
understand how great the ground-fighting portion of the sport is,
however, one needs to personally try it for themselves, and they will
soon gain an appreciation for it.
Wrapping up, MMA gets
an unrighteous shunning from ignoramuses lacking the proper knowledge
of the sport, who choose to instead form a biased opinion based on
mere inaccuracies. Blood and the cage, where the fights take place,
often scare people away from the contests, which is truly ridiculous.
Our society has accepted such sports as football, baseball, and
hockey, where athletes tackle, throw at each other’s heads, and
check each other into boards. Heck, we’ve even accepted boxing
where two humans punch each other in the head for twelve rounds (in
championship bouts), often causing major damage to the brain (in the
long run); yet we haven’t accepted MMA? I honestly don’t
understand this unfair attitude we have towards MMA, it’s
completely unjustified and shows a deplorable hypocrisy amongst our
masses. I ask everyone to watch an MMA event with an open mind and
realize the elegance of these contests. Every sport has violence and
deaths in sanctioned competitions, but MMA has only had one such
incident, yet our society rejects the very thought of MMA as an
accepted sport. Where’s the common sense in that? If you think
about it, there is none.
If you have any questions or comments for G.K., email him at GK@LostYouthNation.com, and be sure to check back here next Friday for
another random article from his unpredictable mind.
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