MMA: A Sport of Technique and Excellence Overshadowed by Violence
By Nick Schwartz
While mixed martial arts (MMA) is a relatively new phenomenon, it has quickly gained popularity and viewership. With organizations such as the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Bellator, and the Professional Fighters League (PFL) emerging over the last 30 years, MMA has found a home on mainstream platforms. However, while some are new fans that are intrigued by the stylistic match ups and the bloody battles that go into fighting, many individuals are still turned off from the sport due to its overwhelming violence. In France, MMA was just ruled a sport last year. In Norway, the practice of MMA is illegal and can be punished in various ways. MMA Weekly reporter Ivan Trembow even stated in an article that he would no longer watch MMA due to its extreme violence. Often described as barbaric and vicious, people who don’t know the sport well view MMA as an unnecessary sport that glorifies brutality in a society that has enough problems with violence. However, this is not a fair assessment of MMA. While MMA does have its violent moments, it should be remembered for its technique and skills of its fighters who are in many ways modern day warriors.
At its inception, MMA was a bit of a mess. Starting in Japan in the late 20th century by a man named Satoru “Tiger Mask” Sayama, it was invented as a way for fighters from different martial arts to challenge each other. Early matches consisted of arts like taekwondo, aikido, boxing, jiu jitsu, and more. After discovering MMA and moving to Las Vegas, a boxing coach named Dana White bought a bankrupt UFC from Robert Meyrowitz. Early on in the company’s days, it appeared much like its predecessor in Japan with many mixed martial artists coming together to display their techniques against those in other arts. In those days, it was possible to watch a match between a 200 lb. karate specialist and a 170 lb. boxer. However, as time went on, these fighters began to learn to adapt to other martial arts. This is where the sport was truly born. Soon, the fights became more competitive and in turn garnered more interest from fans. A few years later, fighters like Royce Gracie, Ken Shamrock, and Randy Couture, quickly became fan favorites prompting more fans to start watching MMA. As the years progressed, MMA continued to get more popular.
MMA officially hit the mainstream market when the UFC announced that World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) star Brock Lesnar would join the organization in 2008. While at this point UFC did have a pretty big fanbase, WWE was bigger. In a Bleacher Report article written by Todd Seyler, Seyler explains Lesnar’s impact.
“With the millions of WWE fans around the world backing their wrestling sensation, Brock’s transition into ultimate fighting brought with it hordes of new fans to the fight game,” said Seyler.
Lesnar’s post-fight call outs and brash attitude helped the fans gravitate toward his fighting and his persona. With Lesnar going onto to become the Heavyweight Champion quickly after joining, people from all over the world began watching the UFC to see the “freak of nature” that was Brock Lesnar. While Lesnar went on to win a few more matches and defend his belt, a battle with diverticulitis eventually derailed his career. However, while his career was cut short, people awaited the next superstar that could carry their attention. With new stars like Dominick Cruz and Conor McGregor rounded in all facets of martial arts emerging as elite fighters after the retirement of Lesnar, the UFC only continued to get more popular as time continued.
When COVID-19 emerged as a threat to the world, many sports leagues and companies were forced to shut down. However, promotions like the UFC experienced huge growth. Since sports like football and basketball were on a standstill, MMA was one of the only sports that could be watched. According to UFC Sports Marketing and Management Agent Oren Hodak, the UFC had one of the only “bubbles” that allowed production to carry on while prioritizing everyone’s safety. Due to their bright infrastructure ideas, the UFC was able to pull in more viewers during lockdown. Now, the UFC has soared to become one of the most watched organizations in the world.
Is there anything more to the sport than violence?
In recent years, MMA journalists like Jake Dixon have become upset with how non-MMA fans perceive the sport. In an opinion piece for Bleacher Report, Dixon explained some of the concerns that are held by non-fans. The main concern fans have is injuries. However, Dixon quickly explained this should not be a real concern.
“The UFC, the world’s largest MMA organization in the world, has never had anyone die due to in-ring combat,” said Dixon. “No one has ever been paralyzed in the UFC. No serious head injury has ever come out of the UFC.”
Dixon believes that many of these misconceptions and misinformed ideas come from two sources: boxing fans and non-fans of MMA that have seen a limited number of fights. In terms of boxing fans, Dixon believes the criticism comes from a place of jealousy. According to Stefano Secci and his article Is MMA(UFC) More Popular Than Boxing, it is revealed that out of the top 50 pay-per-view events boxing still holds more spots than the UFC. However, in recent years, the UFC has closed the gap. If the trend continues, in a few short years UFC (one MMA organization, will be more popular than the whole spot of boxing. According to Jake Christie, a former staff reporter for The Globe and Mail, a Canadian study found that MMA is the fastest growing sport out of 30 different sports. Dixon believes this has led to boxing fans and commentators bashing the UFC and other MMA organizations.
While MMA has been predominantly popularized by the UFC, there are several organizations such as ONE Championship, PFL, and Bellator that also produce high level fights consisting of discipline, effort and technique. However, while avid fans are aware of this side of the sport, people that have only given MMA a quick glance find the sport to be grotesque and horrid. These people dislike MMA due to the misconceptions about it being dangerous and harmful. While most of them can get behind boxing, the difference in glove size and gruesome use of knees and elbows (which are more prone to draw blood), makes the sport of MMA too brutal. While football and boxing are dangerous, the gore and primality of the sport keeps some individuals away. That is a common misconception however, as MMA is full of true athletes. According to Nolan King, a journalist from MMAJunkie, fighters are some of the most professional athletes in all of sports. They must constantly manage their weight, train, and deal with constant down time and injuries. In addition, Hodak explained that most fighters don’t get the same fame that other athletes receive. If Lebron James walked down a public street, everyone would stop him and ask for pictures.
“Unless a fighter is Conor McGregor or a UFC Champion, it is most likely that they would go unnoticed on the street. Fighters must be as disciplined as any other non-violent sport, while receiving minimal popularity and glory,” stated Hodak.
Another aspect that takes fighting beyond the violence is the resiliency of these athletes. Many fighters come from difficult backgrounds. Before becoming a fighter, Daniel Rodriguez was a gang member in Central Los Angeles. Before becoming UFC Champion, Francis Ngannou was homeless on the streets of Paris.
In 2022, King interviewed and wrote an article about a Bellator athlete named Brennan Ward. Ward had a history of addiction and drug abuse while competing in the sport and was constantly struggling with the balance in his life. Instead of training for his next fight, he was always looking for more drugs. Eventually, Ward just disappeared. After returning to society, Ward began training again for fights. However, this time he stayed sober and began focusing more on his family than a fix. Currently, he is still fighting for Bellator and he has been sober for over a year. The character it takes for someone to recover from a life of drug use cannot be understated. There is more to MMA than violence. There are individuals with unique stories that can teach fans about overcoming adversity and working hard.
“After I published the story,” said King, “He [Ward] told me he felt free. I immediately realized the positive impact this story had.”
The sport of MMA is also more than just violence as it can be informative when learning about different cultures. When King began traveling to cover MMA, he came across many new cultures that he had not experienced. As MMA is an international sport, there are many different nationalities and individuals that participate. This can open up social dialogues between communities that normally would have no exposure to each other and promote unity. Sports are able to bring people together, and while there may be violence, MMA is no different.
What are the Main Drawbacks of MMA?
While MMA is full of technique and lessons to be learned, it is still a violent sport. Unfortunately, this means that the sport can have major negatives for some of the athletes. While some athletes may be able to remain undefeated such as the legendary Khabib Nurmagomedov, others take irreparable damage. In 2013, a fighter named Michael Bisping got kicked in the eye by opponent Vitor Belfort. Bisping ended up losing his eye. While he still went on to become UFC Champion shortly after, participating in MMA had changed his life forever.
Part of the sport of MMA is trying to defeat your opponent by knockout or submission. Unfortunately, in these cases, this results in a lot of damage being done to the fighters.
When someone is knocked out, their brain is effectively shut off for a few seconds. Over time this can result in many different detrimental conditions. From slurred speech to memory loss, a single knockout can alter the course of your life. As many fighters’ careers progress, you can tell by their speech and dialogue that they have received significant damage. According to Shimon Braithwaite, a journalist from the website Medium, knockouts are extremely harmful.
“If you are knocked out it’s guaranteed that you suffered some form of brain damage,” stated Baraithwaite. “It’s the damage of the brain that triggers the loss of consciousness so it’s impossible to be knocked out without getting some sort of brain damage.”
In terms of submissions, different but still significant injuries can affect the injured party. If someone is choked out, their brain can briefly lose its supply of oxygen. This can result in a seizure, a coma, or even death. In many ways, choking someone out has a higher chance of harm than a knockout. However, not all submissions involve chokes. Some submissions such as the arm bar and the kimura are designed to snap an opponent’s arm out of its socket. If that doesn’t go according to plan, then the arm will break. Similar to these two submissions is the heel hook. This specific submission twists the ankle and can result in a broken ankle. In the worst-case scenarios, both arm and leg submissions can result in irreparable nerve damage in the affected area.
Injuries caused by knockouts and submissions usually cause fighters to require some sort of rehabilitation. In most cases, this results in physical therapy. Depending on the injury, the path to recovery can be easy or difficult. If someone suffers a minor tendon tear, they will need around 2-3 months of rehab at a minimum. On the other side of the spectrum, when Jiri Prochazka suffered a full tendon tear he was notified he could be out of the sport for 1-2 years.
Besides rehab, injuries during an MMA fight can result in mental health crises. In 2021, heavyweight Chris Daukaus was a rising star riding a huge win streak. However, since then, he has been brutally knocked out twice. In a recent article by SB Nation, it was revealed that since then, Daukaus has thought about killing himself. In MMA, fighters are put on pedestals for the whole world to see. If they get substantially hurt, the embarrassment and publicity can cause them to spiral. This can be seen with the career of Ronda Rousey. During her come up, she defeated all of her opponents in a spectacular fashion. However, she was soon defeated and suffered two back-to-back knockouts. After this, Rousey regressed from the public eye for a few years to work on herself. While she is currently signed to WWE in 2022, the psychological damage of losing an MMA fight in gruesome fashion cannot be understated.
Are Fighters Compensated Fairly?
Recently, the issue of fighter pay has become a hot topic in MMA. With fighters being bombarded with questions about their earnings at post-fight press conferences, fighters like Bellator’s Corey Anderson have spoken up about their lack of pay. In addition, Youtube sensation Jake Paul has been bashing Dana White for allegedly not paying his fighters. When asked, King explained that the issue of fighter pay is very real. When discussing Bellator and UFC, King stated that the UFC is worth far more than Bellator. For opening level fighters, the UFC usually pays $10k to take the fight and $10k to complete the fight. On the other hand, Bellator offers their fighters $20k to show up and $20k to complete the fight. In his article on SB Nation, Ryan Harkness commented on the fact that Corey Anderson made more money in six months with Bellator than in seven years with the UFC.
While the UFC has the money to pay their fighters more, they choose to pay less. On the other hand, Bellator must pay more than the UFC in order to remain competitive with the Dana White’s industry giant. While $40k to fight in Bellator might not seem bad, people that risk their lives for the entertainment of others should be compensated more fairly. As the movement continues to gain speed, hopefully fighters will soon get paid fairly.
Youtuber Boxing Craze: Does It Benefit MMA?
In recent years, a phenomenon known as “Youtube Boxing” has emerged in the world of combat sports. A bout between two content creators, these boxing matches are usually between amateur competitors. Youtubers Jake Paul and KSI have quickly popularized the sport. As this new type of boxing continued to evolve, it became referred to as “Influencer Boxing” and the field opened up from just Youtubers to ex-UFC stars and Tiktokers. Currently, Jake Paul is the most popular fighter in this type of boxing and has beat former UFC stars like Anderson Silva, Tyron Woodley, and Ben Askren.
Paul defeating several UFC fighters has made the MMA community upset. Many fighters believe that his fights are fixed and that this type of influencer fighting is bad for the combat sports in general. However, King disagrees.
“It may not be impactful to real fans, but its effects have trickled into MMA. The numbers are there and it gets new people involved in the sport,” said King.
While Jake Paul knocking out former UFC stars may not be a good look for the MMA, it does help the UFC gain exposure as he is one of the most popular people on the internet. With his help, MMA will be able to gain their next generation of fans.
Conclusion
While it used to be viewed as a stigmatized sport, MMA is continually becoming more accepted in today’s society. People are beginning to realize that behind the violence, a beautiful art has emerged steeped in technique and character. With new methods of exposure for the sport like the new “Influencer Boxing” sensation, the sport will only continue to get more popular. Filled with various characters, cultures, and stories, MMA is truly an awe-inspiring sport.