Defending Ultimate Fighting
There is a big misconception out there about the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. Many believe it to be a brutal sport, where two men are locked in a cage and the one who survives the longest is the winner. I guarantee if you give this sport a chance and learn what the true meanings and origins are, you will change your mind. At the end of this article if you still think that MMA is stupid, brutal or for idiots, unfortunately, you are simply too close-minded.
MMA is one of the most technical and most athletic sports in the world. The sport is a combination of wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, maui tai, jiu-jitsu, sambo, Judo, karate, and many other types of individual martial arts and you put them in a blender and come out with the art form known as MMA. This is not a sport that just anyone can do, in fact, you have to be tough, and I don't mean just physically. You have to be mentally tough and if you want to be successful you need the heart of a lion. It is believed that to become a professional at something, you need to spend over 10,000 hours working in the discipline. That is part of the beauty of MMA; no matter how good you are at one practice, be it wrestling, then someone will be able to counter it with their own style, perhaps boxing. In MMA, styles make the matchups, which is what makes every single fight interesting. Not one fight will ever be the same as another, something different will always happen.
Ultimate Fighting (another common name for MMA) is also not about completely destroying your opponent and beating them into a lifeless pulp. Sure, the goal is to win and you can do that by (T)KO, Submission or decision, but it is done in a way that is respectful, where you want to finish your opponent, but never want to hurt them. Even if you don't want to hurt your opponent, it sometimes happens. An arm could break, someone could get a concussion, and yes, someone could eventually die.
In my opinion, in comparison to boxing, MMA is a much, much safer sport. In a 12 round boxing match you can potentially get hit in the head 700-900 times, but in MMA the gloves are much smaller, and you get hit once and go down hard the fight is over. In boxing you get that time to stand up, regroup and then get beat on some more. Let's not forget to mention there are many other ways to win in MMA rather then just by devastating knockout. Submissions play a huge, huge part of the fight game and give the fighter losing control to “tap” or give up when they cannot handle it anymore, and avoid injury.
In a study that was done by John Hopkins University, they discovered that the overall injury rate, excluding injury to the brain, in MMA competitions is now similar to other combat sports such as boxing. Knockout rates are lower in MMA competitions than in boxing and this suggests that there is a reduced risk traumatic brain injury in MMA competitions when compared to other events involving striking. This does not make MMA safe, but it gives it a great deal of legitimacy.
If you are still sitting here thinking, ‘Hey, I watched a fight a long time ago and it was just some really fat guy beating on a skinny guy and there was crotch shots, and no rules, and it was just gory.” Well here's your history lesson for the week, this sport has come a long, long way since that gruesome fight you watched back in 1993. The UFC, which is the premiere organization in MMA, has taken the sport from when it was no holds barred fighting and adapted rules for it and weight classes and has made the sport completely legitimate and legal in 40 states in the USA. After the first few Ultimate Fighting Championship competitions ran, the sport was banned in all the states, and through growth and acceptance the sport is now quickly becoming one of the biggest in the world.
The reality of MMA is it's still in it's infancy and is already taking over as one of the most popular sports in the world, soon enough you won't be able to turn on your sports station without having some sort of MMA action on it every single day, and that day is coming sooner, rather then later.
MMA is one of the most technical and most athletic sports in the world. The sport is a combination of wrestling, boxing, kickboxing, maui tai, jiu-jitsu, sambo, Judo, karate, and many other types of individual martial arts and you put them in a blender and come out with the art form known as MMA. This is not a sport that just anyone can do, in fact, you have to be tough, and I don't mean just physically. You have to be mentally tough and if you want to be successful you need the heart of a lion. It is believed that to become a professional at something, you need to spend over 10,000 hours working in the discipline. That is part of the beauty of MMA; no matter how good you are at one practice, be it wrestling, then someone will be able to counter it with their own style, perhaps boxing. In MMA, styles make the matchups, which is what makes every single fight interesting. Not one fight will ever be the same as another, something different will always happen.
Ultimate Fighting (another common name for MMA) is also not about completely destroying your opponent and beating them into a lifeless pulp. Sure, the goal is to win and you can do that by (T)KO, Submission or decision, but it is done in a way that is respectful, where you want to finish your opponent, but never want to hurt them. Even if you don't want to hurt your opponent, it sometimes happens. An arm could break, someone could get a concussion, and yes, someone could eventually die.
In my opinion, in comparison to boxing, MMA is a much, much safer sport. In a 12 round boxing match you can potentially get hit in the head 700-900 times, but in MMA the gloves are much smaller, and you get hit once and go down hard the fight is over. In boxing you get that time to stand up, regroup and then get beat on some more. Let's not forget to mention there are many other ways to win in MMA rather then just by devastating knockout. Submissions play a huge, huge part of the fight game and give the fighter losing control to “tap” or give up when they cannot handle it anymore, and avoid injury.
In a study that was done by John Hopkins University, they discovered that the overall injury rate, excluding injury to the brain, in MMA competitions is now similar to other combat sports such as boxing. Knockout rates are lower in MMA competitions than in boxing and this suggests that there is a reduced risk traumatic brain injury in MMA competitions when compared to other events involving striking. This does not make MMA safe, but it gives it a great deal of legitimacy.
If you are still sitting here thinking, ‘Hey, I watched a fight a long time ago and it was just some really fat guy beating on a skinny guy and there was crotch shots, and no rules, and it was just gory.” Well here's your history lesson for the week, this sport has come a long, long way since that gruesome fight you watched back in 1993. The UFC, which is the premiere organization in MMA, has taken the sport from when it was no holds barred fighting and adapted rules for it and weight classes and has made the sport completely legitimate and legal in 40 states in the USA. After the first few Ultimate Fighting Championship competitions ran, the sport was banned in all the states, and through growth and acceptance the sport is now quickly becoming one of the biggest in the world.
The reality of MMA is it's still in it's infancy and is already taking over as one of the most popular sports in the world, soon enough you won't be able to turn on your sports station without having some sort of MMA action on it every single day, and that day is coming sooner, rather then later.
