TABLE OF CONTENTS MMAR READER Contributors March 2010
TABLE OF CONTENTS MMAR READER Contributors March 2010
TABLE OF CONTENTS MMAR READER Contributors March 2010
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Talking Points: Making A Case for Mixed Martial Arts<br />
Continued from previous page...<br />
I know of no human culture that failed to develop similar contests, or reward physical acts of bravery,<br />
strength, and courage, in order to develop its youth. To do so is human, arguably necessary, and today<br />
optional. In any case, and either in spite or because of football’s violent nature, 138 million Americans,<br />
including 58 million women, self describe as NFL fans. If the violence, injury, and risk-reward inherent in<br />
football, hockey, boxing, and martial arts, is itself barbaric then those sports’ fans are barbarians.<br />
Few would admit to barbarianism, however, and as a result a popular view is to draw a distinction between<br />
violence and sport, including football and boxing. Several commentators, see here and here, have factually<br />
debunked the idea that the Unified Rules governing sanctioned mixed martial arts lacks sufficient<br />
restrictions and penalties for excessive acts of force as compared to other contact sports. Or that MMA’s<br />
small gloves increase brain trauma as compared to boxing gloves, and that mixed martial artists face either<br />
a higher rate of injury or are prone to more catastrophic injuries than other mainstream contact sports,<br />
especially football.<br />
What repulses the average non-MMA-but-football-loving-fan is the lack of a helmet, facemask, or bulbous<br />
glove, which is ignorantly perceived as protection rather than tools to enhance violence. MMA forces<br />
viewers to observe in one theater the beautiful, but at times brutal, reality of contact sport performed by<br />
skilled martial artists who combine any number of disciplines into a single, unique human weapon. There<br />
is glory, blood, victory, and defeat. MMA is acutely human because you see it. It is honest, and I believe it<br />
is good.<br />
Football fans see only glimpses of their game’s humanity, for it is<br />
muted by face masks, helmets, and piles of bodies, twenty-two players<br />
occupying the field, and relatively distant cameras. I find it a peculiar<br />
worldview that cherishes a game whose most poignant moment is a<br />
stretcher carting a limp player off the field, typically with helmet on,<br />
while refusing to tolerate the humanity mixed martial arts reveals. To<br />
each his own. I enjoy football as well as MMA, but the latter more<br />
because there is no filter, and no off-season to the sport’s development,<br />
intrigue, and sporting action.<br />
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