Prompt #3-Jimmy McGuire

I have decided to write about the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA) for this week's blog. MMA is a fighting sport that incorporates any and all forms of martial arts into one competition between two fighters. This can be any type of stand-up fighting like boxing, mui-thai, or kick boxing, all the way to ground fighting like wrestling and jiu jitsu. The sport is most famous in the organization known as the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), and it is the fastest growing sport in the world.

Fighting sports in general are overwhelmingly seen as ultra-masculine sports, because they are violent and often result in the fighters being injured by the end of their bout, and is generally seen as males trying to physically out-match their opponent. This sport is seen much different than other violent sports though, such as football or hockey. People who do not know much about MMA seem to consider it much too violent and dangerous, and because of this they do not like the idea of watching a sport that exhibits these qualities. Not to mention, the sport is seen as a male-only sport.

I would personally disagree with these viewpoints. I'm a huge fan of MMA, especially UFC fights, so up front I can concede that I may hold some bias. But the sport is really not much different than any other more popular sports watched today. First off, like any athletic activity, it requires physical fitness, but that is hardly the only quality these athletes must possess. Almost any fighter will say that being mentally prepared is most of what you need in a fight. Each fight requires a thorough strategy, a set pace, and a point scoring strategy for judges. There is so much strategic planning that goes into each fighter's game plan, and more often than not it results in highly technical competitions rather than brawling and bloody fist fights.

The notion that this sport is unsafe is in many ways ridiculous. True, the competitors often result in busted lips and a broken nose here and there, but this sport is actually much safer than football, hockey, and boxing. The difference is that when a guy gets hit in an MMA fight, and its enough to rattle him, he's likely to go down and probably get knocked out by his opponent, the ref stops the fight, and the fight is over. He then gets a full medical examination and has to get cleared to continue training afterwards. In a sport like football, you have huge guys running at each other with all their power and weight and butting heads over and over in one game, and games occur many times in one year. How can they be safer than a fighter fighting 2 times a year and once he gets hurt, he's done getting hurt? Same thing with hockey and boxing (where fighters get knocked down and then stand back up to continue).

Finally, the way this pertains to our class, is that this sport is by no means female exclusive. The stereotype is that fighting is a men's sport because of the violent aspect. But recently, the UFC has said that about 51% of its fans are women, and often women take girls' trips to Las Vegas just to see a UFC fight. Plus, women participating in MMA is on a high rise, and it's only a matter of time before it gets popular (though I'm not sure how I feel about this).

So I would suggest that people take an objective look at MMA and decide for themselves. From my perspective, it's a legitimate sport with highly technical athletes, its safer than many sports, and it is popular regardless of gender.

Here is a video of a quick knockout that prevented the loser from takeing further harm** http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iB2-sGkhg5o