MMA: Sport? or the next nail in the coffin of Western Society?
By falese | June 3, 2008
Category: National/Int'l News
As you may or may not be aware CBS aired the first Mixed Martial Arts bout ever on broadcast television this weekend. Kimbo Slice, internet superstar, defeated James Thompson by doctor stoppage in the third round. I’m not sure if you’ve seen this or not but Thompson’s ear exploded after Slice drilled him in the head with a pretty vicious punch.
For the uninitiated, Kimbo Slice is a big scary dude from the streets of Miami. He rose to prominence through youtube videos of him brutalizing dudes in their backyards. The dude looks mean. And he can fight, there’s no doubting that, but is what he engages in (MMA) a sport?
I’m about 25 years old so I can remember back to the days of Iron Mike Tyson in his scary, invincible prime.
My father was never a big fight fan, but I can remember numerous occasions when we ordered Tyson fights on pay-per-view. Tyson was the last boxer anybody cared about. His matches usually had the air of a dog fight; you knew someone was going to get hurt. Watching Tyson sizing up his opponent, cornering him, dodging and delivering a devastating left was akin to watching an execution. The poor schlub they tossed out to Mike’s bad-intentioned fists never had a chance. It was brutality at its best. I make the contention these ’bouts’ Tyson fought after prison were sport, solely on the fact the brutality was contained within the rules of a long established discipline.
Two men, in a bar, fighting. Haymakers are flying. They tussle, they grapple. They hit the floor. One guy gets on top of the other, puts him in a chokehold and begins wailing on his opponents head. The cops show up. Book the men for assault.
Now put those same two men in a cage with hundreds of blood-drunk spectators screaming and a ‘referee’ dancing around the pair. What you’ve got is MMA. It’s the latest reality entertainment craze. Mixed Martial Arts can trace its American roots (this stuff has been popular for decades in Asian countries) to a Las Vegas casino owner. Designed to find the best fighters regardless of discipline, the UFC was one of the first MMA organizations to gain national notoriety. It was marketed as no holds barred and was wildly popular with the ever coveted 18-30 male demographic. Political pressure forced the UFC to adopt some rules, but it still remains a caged streetfight.
To me MMA is just a barbaric reminder of what our country and society is devolving into. I respect the talent, guts and just plain balls the fighters (of both sexes) must possess to engage in such a brutal living. It takes a whole lot of skill to be able to wrestle, box and kickbox effectively there is no doubt in my mind. I even respect the fans of MMA.
Many of them probably feel the same way I do about boxing. Boxing has become boring. When was the last must see fight? Mayweather-De La Hoya? Jones-Holyfield? Tyson-Holyfield? In all honesty boxing is finished. There are no fights on broadcast television, the boxers are all boring, and all too often (and most importantly) bouts go twelve rounds with minimal action. Gone are the days of Hagler, of Foreman, of Holyfield. Twenty years ago, boxing was a pretty vibrant sport with interesting champions and fights.
Why does MMA exist at all? Where did this bloodthirst come from? Well it pains me to say this but my generation is the first generation to grow up in the information age. We have cable and satellite tv. We have the internet. We have Grand Theft Auto. We all remember watching Columbine. We all remember 9/11. The fact of the matter is we are desensitized. The rush our fathers and older brothers got from watching Tyson demolish some sucker in the ring is no longer enough. We require that sucker to bleed profusely and collapse, broken beaten and defeated. MMA exists simply because our society is never placated, it always wants more. More violence, more blood, more action. Boxing used to provide this, but its failure to do so has led to its marginalization. MMA fills this void. It is a sport, most definitely, and it gives us all the increased blood, violence and action boxing cannot. The dilemna with MMA, for me at least, is where do we go from here?
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:18 am
I say it’s better than 85% of the garbage on tv… At least these guys don’t get dressed up (and juiced up) like WWF wrestlers, and there is no Mayweather-style 8 round dance contest with 2 rounds of fighting. Nowhere to run, no b.s. build-up, just hand to hand combat- Kumate style. Where is Frank Dux when you need him?
June 3rd, 2008 at 11:00 am
i think the desire for sex and violence have always and will always be there in people, it’s biological. what’s interesting is how the MMA is pushing back against the regulation of these things in a Fight Club/reclaiming masculinity kind of way.
i think the void left by boxing has already been filled by the other professional sports, but no doubt it’s carving a nice niche for itself. what they should do is do it like they do club sports in other counties: have fighters represent the city/state/province where they come from.
either way, if Kimbo Slice does go on to become a mega-star and makes them piles of money, they’ll owe 95% of it to the guys who founded youtube.
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:27 pm
That stuff doesn’t compare to this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-M5mPGbfzIc
David Tua vs John Ruiz… KO after 19 seconds.
June 6th, 2008 at 10:01 am
MMA is most certainly a sport, but a difficult one to categorize. In one sense, the fighters train their asses off as any professional athlete would. So they clearly are not your standard street brawler. On the other hand, the refinement in technique is rarely shown in the ring, with raw power and brute strength being the crutch they rely on. Boxing, while displaying raw power and brute strength, is also an art, where timing, rhythm, and a refinement of the tools are essential. Not saying MMA does not have those things too, but you see less emphasis on those from the majority of players (some exceptions lie in characters such as Cung Le, Pierre, Shamrock, Hughes, etc.) Boxing rules.
Oh yeah, and our society is headed to hookers fighting in the cage using newborns as ammo.