A Case for Mixed Martial Arts

This will be the first of two (planned) posts today, so keep an eye out for this weekend’s football preview. First though, I’m going to do what I’ve been talking about for quite some time: I’m going to tell my skeptical friends and readers why the sport of mixed martial arts (known to some as “ultimate fighting”) is not the human cockfight that some think it is.

There are a few main concerns that people have with mixed martial arts competition. There’s the brutality of the sport for sure, but I think a lot of what people have a problem with is aesthetics. Let’s get this out of the way first though: the sport is mixed martial arts, and the organization that is most associated with the sport is the Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC. This is much like football is played in the NFL and basketball is played in the NBA. There are actually numerous MMA organizations, with the UFC being the most recognizable in America. I’m saying all of this because it bothers me sometimes when people refer to the sport as “ultimate fighting”. Sure, it’s basically the ultimate in fighting competition, but I don’t see it as the kind of toughman spectacle that this particular moniker implies.

So back to the original subject. To address the brutality concern that some have with the sport, if you find boxing too brutal as well, then mixed martial arts is not for you. But for those that can appreciate a good boxing match, I think there’s something here that you would enjoy. Just for the heck of it, let’s compare how tough each sport is. (Note: I’ll be using rules in the UFC since that’s what I’m most familiar with.) In boxing, there are typically between 10-12 rounds of three minutes each in a big-time fight. In mixed martial arts, there are usually between 3-5 rounds of five minutes each (five rounds for championship fights). This wasn’t always the case, but this isn’t a column about the history of mixed martial arts in America—it’s just about what’s going on now. So I’ll move on. In boxing, if you are knocked down, you’re given a standing 8-count to regain your wits and decide if you can continue to fight. In the UFC, if you’re ever in a position where you can’t intelligently defend yourself, the fight is over. If you’re asking me, this presents a case for MMA being less brutal than boxing. A mixed martial artist may take a kick to the head and go down, but if he doesn’t recover immediately, he’s done. A boxer can take repeated shots to the head, get knocked down, recover, and then take more repeated shots to the head.

Now to be fair, there are a lot more ways of hurting one’s opponent in mixed martial arts. But there’s also less time in which to inflict the damage, and there are so many defensive maneuvers that go largely unnoticed because of the highlights that are typically shown on news programs. There has never been a serious (by that I mean life-threatening or paralyzing) injury or death in the UFC, though I can’t say for sure about mixed martial arts in general (especially unsanctioned bouts).

All this about brutality having been said, there are frequent nasty cuts and gashes that happen. Blood is not uncommon. Now, I’m not going to deny that there are a lot of MMA fans (especially in this country as opposed to somewhere like Japan, where MMA is very popular) who watch specifically to see blood and guys pounding on each other. I am not one of these mouth-breathers, and I don’t think most MMA fans are either.

Mixed martial arts—as the name implies—combines different fighting styles (such as muay thai, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, wrestling, boxing, etc.) and matches well-rounded fighters with each other to see which man can best the other. Some fool street fighter could never step into a fight like this and do any damage. He’d be submitted in under a minute, regardless of how hard he hits. That’s the beauty of this sport. There are so many facets to a fighter’s style that no one uses exactly the same techniques, and there are almost always match-ups for each fighter to exploit in his favor. Everyone’s got their specialty. Some guys are better at standing up and striking. Some are better wrestlers and like to take it to the ground and try to win by either submission or what they call “ground and pound” (a quick definition: getting your opponent in a position where you are able to land a lot of blows and hopefully cause them to have to submit because of that or have the ref stop the fight). Any style can win a fight, but beware to the fighter who is too one-dimensional. So the highlights that you see on commercials and on programs that say the sport is too violent are accurate, but the picture is much bigger. Having followed the sport for just a little while, I’m able to appreciate a fight where two guys get into the octagon and just want to keep the fight on the feet, but I can also enjoy a fight that is spent mostly on the ground. If you know what you’re looking at, the fights are hugely entertaining.

As for aesthetics, some people have a problem with the fights being held in a cage. I can understand that, but I’ll just point out some advantages of the cage over your traditional boxing ring (which is used in Japan’s Pride Fighting Championship). In the cage, there is no chance that a fighter will fall out through the ropes causing injury. With the amount of movement in the cage, this would assuredly happen (and has happened in the aforementioned PFC). Speaking of falling out of the ring, I’ve also seen it happen (in boxing as well) that a fighter is knocked out close to the ropes and falls out, causing further injury. There’s also the question of a fight that’s being fought on the ground. When this happens, a fight could theoretically slide right under the ropes. This doesn’t actually happen because the referee would stop the action and reposition the fighters toward the middle of the ring, but it definitely breaks up the flow of a fight. This is not a problem with the cage.

So that’s what entertains me so much with mixed martial arts. If you’ve ever seen Fight Club (and you’re a guy), you’ve probably thought about how exhilarating it would be to fight somebody. Not because the other guy pissed you off, or what have you. Just to see who would win. It’s the ultimate competition. We talked about it when we were kids—“My dad can beat up your dad”. Don’t tell me you’ve never thought, “I wonder who would win in a fight between ­­­­­_______ and _______.” Sure, I like contact sports. I like movies that happen to have violence in them (none of that Jean-Claude Van Damme crap, but you know—stuff like Sin City and the like). But I also consider myself to be semi-intelligent. I don’t like violence for the sake of violence. That’s not how I view mixed martial arts. It’s a sport, and I like sports.

Don't Ask Me About the Eagles Game

I’m back, and there’s been a lot that’s happened since my last sports post.  Being an Eagles fan, some might think I have a few choice words for Terrell Owens.  I really don’t.  I said what I had to say in the off-season.  I was finished with the guy personally back then.  I was glad when he made plays on the field, but now I say good riddance.  A wide receiver can’t win games by himself, and especially when your superstar quarterback has been hobbled like Donovan McNabb has been. So now we come to a critical spot in the season for the Eagles.  Can the team win with Mike McMahon at the helm?  I think they probably can, but it won’t be easy.  They’ll have a very small margin for error against the Giants this weekend, and honestly if they lose this one, they can pretty much say goodbye to any postseason hopes to which they may still cling.  

But you know what?  That’s okay.  I don’t think they’ll make the playoffs as it stands right now, and not because they’re a bad team.  I think they’re still a good team that’s extremely banged up right now and that has not been able to be mistake-free when they needed to be.  The problem this season is that the NFC East won’t allow them to make up the ground that they need.  I think this may actually be—I won’t say a good thing—but maybe a not-so-bad thing for them in the long run.  It could give the injured players some time to get healthy, and give the healthy players more time to get ready for next season.  It’ll give the coaches and management more time to prepare for next season.  I’m not making excuses for this team, because I think they’ve played well below what they’re capable of (especially defensively), but I think this season has been an aberration.  If you watch the rest of the year, regardless of wins and losses, I think you’ll see a group of players who are in this thing together.  That’s not something you could have said a few weeks ago, and I think that’s probably a big part of why we are where we are right now.  But enough of my home team for now.  Let’s have a look around the league, shall we?

I’ve been calling the Colts semi-overrated all season.  I think this is a very very good team that has had a very very easy schedule up to this point.  That schedule gets a lot tougher down the stretch, but they’ll still probably win 14 games.  Cincinnati is the popular pick to knock them off at home this week, but I’m not so sure.  They can definitely pull it off, but Indy will be up for this one.  I’m seeing the Colts beating the Bengals in a close game.  If you look at the rest of the season, the Colts have Pittsburgh (in Indy), the Jags (in Jacksonville), the Chargers (in Indy), and the Seahawks (in Seattle).  I can see them dropping games against San Diego and Seattle.  That having been said, I still think they’re the favorites for the Super Bowl right now (I know, that’s a tough pick to make, right?).

Speaking of San Diego and Seattle, don’t sleep on these guys.  The Chargers will run off four straight wins over the next four weeks (Buffalo, Washington, Oakland, Miami) before going into what will be a huge final three weeks of the season for them (Indy, K.C., Denver).  If they can get two out of those last three (I think they will), that gives them 11 wins and that’s gotta be enough for a playoff berth—even in the AFC.  Even though Indy is the favorite for the Super Bowl, I’m still sticking with my preseason pick until they’re out of it.

In the NFC, I have no more illusions of the Eagles making the Super Bowl at this point, so I need to get myself an NFC favorite.  The Panthers will make a run at it, and they’re the popular choice right now to take the conference.  I say look out for the Seahawks.  They’ve exorcised the St. Louis demons (losses to the Rams have sent their last two seasons into a tailspin), and at 7-2, they’ve got the Giants, Colts and (potentially) Eagles as tough games left on the schedule.  That puts them at a worst case scenario of 11-5 at the end of the year.  The Panthers, on the other hand, have Chicago, Atlanta (twice), Tampa, and Dallas down the stretch.  I still think they’ll win the NFC South, but Seattle will be on more of a roll toward the end of the season.

There wasn’t much to write about as far as this past week’s games (yes, I’m avoiding talking about the Eagles-Cowboys game—it’s much too painful), so I guess I’ll leave it at that for now.  I’ll be back with this week’s picks later this week (probably Friday), and I’m planning on finally getting my UFC post up this week, leading up to this Saturday’s pay-per-view event.  I’m really looking forward to that one.  Until then, enjoy your sports.