I've decided for my return to Blogland that I want to do an informal examination of MMA. I want to explore its rise from the underground---a smaller thing that jocks at my high school guiltily traded VHS tapes of as if it were porn---to the mainstream monstrosity it is today. What has made this possible? How did such a brutal combat sport become family entertainment that plays silently on lcd screens at the McDonald's? And furthermore, is this okay?
This will be a series since it's much too involved and important a thing to examine for just one blurb. Or maybe it isn't that important and I'll just blather on incessantly until my smartphone battery runs out of its charge. At any rate this is a complicated and controversial issue, with a lot of misinformation flying around about it, yet also some compelling arguments for both sides.
I should start by explaining that I never used to like MMA and thought of it as hideous. But I have friends whom I respect that love the sport and out of that respect, I did not want to be simply dismissive of their thing, man. So I desired to learn a lot more about the subject and even willingly desensitized myself to its inherently violent nature for that sake. Then, for reasons that are hard to admit, I found myself loving MMA. Yet I am questioning those reasons because beyond the mere aesthetics ("I don't like to see people bloody each other up," or "boxing is graceful like ballet, compared with the slam-dancing of MMA") I have some serious difficulties reconciling the sport with my own values and beliefs about non-violence.
I'll tell you what I won't do, though, and that is pretend that I'm above it. I can't pretend I have not thoroughly enjoyed watching UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) sometimes. I must also concede that I was/am attracted to the violence that I hate about it. But I still think it's possible to be critical of the things you are guilty of. Furthermore, I think it's possible to be critical of things like the UFC, despite the fact that any such criticisms are immediately quashed (online always and often in legislation) by the massive lobbying onslaught that is MMA fandom.
1. This Ain't Just Fisticuffs.
What is MMA? Well, if you don't know that, your language uses different letters or you have dealings with some other body using the same acronym, because for most of the world, those three letters mean mixed martial arts. But what does that mean, beyond what it sounds like? Aside from the fact that it is the elite competition between practitioners of various schools and disciplines of combat skills, it is a highly scrutinized and regulated sport, which is becoming so popular that its relevance to a sizable portion of society cannot be rationally denied.
Two fighters go "toe-to-toe" in a cage or a ring, depending on the organization (UFC's "Octagon" cage or DEEP's classic four-turnbuckle ring), and are monitored by skilled referees as they do battle in a bid to either knock out or technically knock out their opponents a la traditional boxing rulings. They may also cause their opponent to submit due to giving them a tremendous amount of pain (an "arm bar," for instance) for a controlled period of time. A fourth method of beating an opponent is by a choke-hold, whereby blocking the air passages results in either the opponent "tapping out" or passing out. The fifth method of scoring a victory, also similar to traditional boxing, is a points-based decision in favour of the combatant who has landed the most "significant strikes" or who has controlled the direction of the match with superior authority.
But that's just the surface---MMA is much more than just those things. It is a very complex sport and it involves so many different martial arts and so much technical information that commentators and regulators alike have a hard time keeping up with the newest (or least-known) techniques of hurting somebody else using your body. I will try and describe it better, but I offer no promises of getting it right.
Taking boxing as a familiar combat sport to compare and contrast to, the first thing one notices that is different is that there are kicks, knees, elbows, and grappling techniques. MMA is no mere skirmish with repeated punches to the body and head, like boxing. This is more like a gladiator sport minus weapons, armour, and the intent to kill.
Mike Tyson's ear-biting notwithstanding, boxing seems formal and quaint in contrast to the brutal and unexpected nature of MMA. And while professional boxing rings are not pristine sparring venues that haven't seen a splash of blood before, bloodletting is certainly a much bigger part of MMA, hence my comparison to the gladiatorial arena. If that comparison irks you, as it does for many MMA defenders, consider the recent match between Sean Jordan and Mike Russow (Jan 26, 2013) where Jordan was backed up against the octagon cage with one hand on the ground to legally prevent Russow from kneeing him in the head, all to the audience's chorus of "Knee! Knee! Knee!" You don't hear people united in chanting "right hook!" at a boxing match. That's colosseum-type shit, that is.
I'm going to stick with UFC's current (2013) rules for the sake of this section, but bear in mind that there are a number of variations. A fighter may strike or otherwise inflict pain to the face, the neck, the knee, the stomach, the kidneys, the femoral nerve, the heel---anywhere but the eye (at least with poking or gouging), groin, the back of the head, or the cheeks (i.e. "fish hooking," the practice of ripping someone's cheek open resulting in a smile like the Joker's in The Dark Knight). I might have missed some other no-nos, but those are the basics. These rules have evolved with the sport, remember, and were not always in place.
Taking that in, there is a lot of harm the fighter can Inflict. As the fighter you may, for instance, restrict the escape motions of an opponent whilst driving your knee with terrible force into the opponent's cranial orbital repeatedly, provided the opponent isn't leaning on the ground with his or her hand. If the opponent has fallen to the mat you may punch the person repeatedly in the head without letting them up for air, so long as they are "defending themselves" by blocking or punching back periodically. You may hyper-extend ligaments or dislocate an arm or leg by bending them in ways they weren't meant to bend. You may sit on someone and repeatedly slam your elbows into their face, bouncing their head on the canvas until they escape or the referee stops you. You may wrap your arm around someone's neck, say in an "arm triangle" or a "rear naked choke" until your opponent taps on you or the mat, signaling for to the ref to remove you. In fact, and I've seen this more than once, some people even continue their submission or choke after their opponent has weakly tapped their arm, if the ref hasn't seen the tap, and nothing happens to the offender. "I never felt the tap!" is an ironic t-shirt I've seen some big dudes wearing. Maybe they meant this?...
But it's not all fun and games. If you tend to kick someone in the groin over the course of a three-round bout, you might lose a point or two and your opponent can have up to five minutes to recover. Same goes for poking someone's eye. Boy, will you ever get a stern warning from Herb Dean if he's officiating and you knee someone's head while they've got a hand on the mat. Also, you may not, at least since 2006, "stomp" on a grounded opponent, which is a merciful improvement on the old UFC 'rules' from the '90's.
But really, twenty-five years ago if you read this in an article, chances are you'd be saying "are you KIDDING? What sport needs to even put those fouls in WRITING? Am I in some sadistic pit fight from a Chuck Norris movie? And seriously, dude, when I bet and wave my fist full of Vietnamese money at the wrinkly man with one eye and the long cigarette, how does he calculate my winnings when Chuck kicks some serious ass?"
Despite how bad that seems when I stack it all up in sarcastic tones like that, I would like to remind the reader that this fighting is not done maliciously the way it might come about in a personal beef between say, two street thugs. Also, neither fighter is a hapless victim falling prey to a sadist's whims. Seriously, more times than not, when the fight is over the two combatants are hugging and congratulating each other and their corner teams on a job well done. The truth is, these men (and more and more women like George Lucas' daughter) know better than anyone else what the risks are and they love doing what they do. Yes there are injuries (more on that next blog), but hey...it's a free country, right? If people want to put their bodies on the line to pursue Ultimate Fighting Championship glory, they ought to be allowed to do that oughtn't they?
Please tune in to next week's exciting installment where I hope my analysis will prove less exhausting, and more exhaustive instead.
NaneekoftheNorth
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