On Saturday December 7th there was a rare UFC event down under in Brisbane, Australia. The main event featured hometown hero Mark Hunt (from New Zealand) against a Brazilian known as Antonio 'Bigfoot' Silva. The fight was an unbelievable display of heart by both fighters that ended in a rare deaw. Draws are extremely rare due to the nature of the scoring system and odd numbers of round. Fights are three rounds, or five rounds for championship or main event fights. Rounds are scored as 10-9 just like in they are in boxing. Which is the exact same as scoring a round 1-0. So if you win 2 out of 3 rounds, or 3 out 5 rounds, you win. Rounds are very rarely scored 10-8, so draws are usually the result of point deductions).
This main event fight was extremely bloody. Often elbow strikes do less physical damage to an opponent than a punch will, but they have a propensity to cut the opponent because elbows are sharp. If you have ever cut your head open, you know that the head bleeds much more than a cut on other parts of your body. If you are physically exerting yourself, this problem is magnified because your heart is pumping at full capacity to get blood to your muscles and the blood is really flowing. It is for this reason that elbows are often not allowed in kickboxing matches, except for professional 'full rules' Muay Thai matches, usually in Thailand. When a fighter's foreheads bleed, if the blood is going into their eyes, the fight has to be stopped. That is the pragmatic reason for their exclusion in other combat sports, not the blood itself.
So anyway, the fight was very bloody and both fighters took a lot of punishment. The fact that they were still standing at the end was absolutely unbelievable. After the fight, a sports editor for an Australian website wrote a scathing article about the entire fight card, but the main event in particular.
Some of his quotes:
"SINCE when is kicking, elbowing, kneeing, punching and stomping an opponent classified as sport?"
Well Phil, the first appearance in the Olympics was 648 BC - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pankration
(P.S. stomps, as well as kicks and knees while any opponent is on the ground, are illegal)
"This was nothing but barbaric savagery that should be banned in this country."
...lol
"And why are the competitors allowed to do all this inside a cage when it’s illegal on the streets?"
Probably for the same reason you can't run up and tackle people on the streets. These are people who are trained how to fight and are agreeing to fight each other.
This man must have never seen a Karate tournament, a Tae Kwon Do tournament or a boxing match. Or even a wrestling match(the olympic kind, not Hulk Hogan/Macho Man kind). All of those activities definitely not allowed on the street.
Basically every argument the man made was fallacious, and grossly ignorant.
My favorite has to be:
"The injury risks they face in rugby league and all the footy codes. At
least their sport involves a large degree of skill - and it's not just a
contest to violently bash another person into submission."
Yes fighting does not take skill like rugby. Fighters don't hire dieticians and train 6 days a week and hire coaches to watch tape and discover their opponents weakness, and even pay people who have fought with their next opponent to come train with them and give them insight into how they fight. Yes, none of that takes skill. You just walk into a cage and punch each other until someone falls over.
This article created a huge stir in the MMA world, which I will save for part 2 of this entry because it is already quite long. Thanks for reading.
link to the article:
http://www.couriermail.com.au/sport/boxing-mma/ultimate-fighting-championship-a-bloody-disgrace-writes-phil-rothfield/story-fnii0bqi-1226778234609
I am not familiar with the rules and regulations of MMA fighting, or any fighting sports for that matter. Your post was very informational and interesting. Even though I don't watch fighting sports I do appreciate the time and skill that goes into training for these big fights. I am not one who thinks these kinds of sports are barbaric because these men and women do choose to take part in this sport. The article you posted in your blog did seem funny to me too, these journalist who are writing about the sport should be knowledgeable and what this article displays is ignorance. It's funny how the article makes the statement questioning why they are able to fight in the cage when it is illegal on the streets, your response was priceless. I think the answer to that question could relate to other sports as well. I look forward to reading your part two, your blog is very interesting.
ReplyDeleteErik, I am still very fascinated by the rules and intricacies of MMA fighting. I think the article quotes you showed raise an interesting point about the allowances we make for sports but don't allow in real life. I remember when having students research violence in the media for a research paper many of my students found articles about young people who were so influenced by violence in sports like this that they did not understand why similar actions outside of the sport should be banned. I think you made a good point though that the violence in MMA is not all that different from the tackling in football.
ReplyDeleteNot having any prior knowledge of the rules or regulations of MMA fighting, I found your post to be both informative and interesting. The article quotes you chose to highlight in this post display that MMA fighting, like most sports, seems to be motivated by financial gain. It is hilarious for anyone to make the assertion that MMA fighting does not require skill! Of course fighters need to be trained and have insight into the techniques of their opponents.
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