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.