MMA

So In the last year of so, I’ve grown to love this new up and coming sport of Mixed Martial Arts. As I kid, and most of my high school and college years, I thought MMA to be a brutal and inhumane sport. I’ve ignored it largely to that I had only paid attention to my other favorite sports (Basketball, Tennis, and Motorsports.)I always thought of it was two men wildly kicking, punching, and laying on the ground hugging. But after being exposed to it by reading forums, watching it on TV, and doing my own research, the sport it self is something that can be only enjoy by being exposed to large amounts of it and being open to new things.
The sport in America, is marketed incorrectly. Everyone laughs at it, and people from other major sports think of it as a joke. I can’t really blame people that much though, because If you watch spike TV or the Versus channel, they almost market MMA as “Hardcore, and Bloody”. Also society compares MMA to boxing, which is ridiculous. It’s not even remotely the same sport. It is like comparing baseball and cricket. Yes there are two teams, using a wooden stick to hit a ball. But in Baseball the bat is tapered, in cricket the bat is a flat surface. The balls are of different size, the rules and style of play are totally different. It just doesn’t make sense to compare these two types of combat sports. In America there is one main branch of MMA, which is the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Yes I think it is a great organization, but it is lead by a man who wants ONLY the UFC to succeed. They even made sure of this by buying the world dominating, but slowly dying PRIDE FC, which is based in Japan. Pride FC was the most dominant MMA organization in the world. They had the best shows production wise, the best rules, drama, technical skills, and charisma of the fighters. Sadly the Yakuza was becoming a part of the company, and the Japanese media did not tolerate that, so they shut down their TV deal, which resulted in lower ratings and the lack of constant revenue.
People in the United States think that MMA is “Ultimate Fighting.” What people don’t know is that MMA started of as a sport that was styles against styles. For example a man from a Kyokushin Karate dojo wanted to see how he would deal with a collegiate wrestler, Kung fu practioner or a Muay Thai Boxer. But things have changed. People are now cross training in many different disciplines. People start off with a striking art, such as boxing, kickboxing, Savate, karate. And complimenting it with a grappling/ground game, such as western wrestling, judo, Sambo, Brazillian Ju-Jitsu and many other forms. They use it so that if a match decides to get to the ground or stood up, they have many options to show their arsenal of assault. Fighters can win through TKO, KO, or Submissions.
What I love about MMA the most is that people from all over the world, and of all ages can enjoy this sport. In football, cricket, hockey and other regionalized sports, the sports do not translate well over the globe. People aren’t exposed to it in their culture. But in mixed martial arts, people all over the world know what fighting is. People from Brazil, Japan, the US, Russia, France, Thailand, South Africa and other countries all can understand it. You could even say its sort of like a Universal Language.
Overall MMA is a great sport. Rules are making it much safer, and the athletes are training at a high level that bring great fights. The dynamics of grappling and striking make it very exciting. At any minute a person could be knocked out or caught in submission and it could be over. But anyways I could probably keep writing most likely write a 10 page report about MMA, but I would like to keep it short. Maybe ill write another in the near future. I hope people who read this blog start watching some MMA, this July, especially FEDOR vs SYLVIA, which is epic.