Hello people!
First off Mixed Martial Arts (also known as cage/ultimate fighting) is my favourite sport by far, and I've been raised on soccer and come from an area of the UK that is famous for having the most passionate fans in the country. Watching the Ultimate Fighting Chamionships (UFC) and old Pride FC shows (as well as other mma events) is one of my favourite hobbies, but it's a sport that carries a huge amount of social stigma and many public misconceptions.
Below is a essay I wrote for my english language course, it was word restricted so I couldn't write as much as I would have liked, I've also taken out the parts with the appendixs and most of the sources of the references to make it easier to read.
I would like to know -
- what other peoples opinions are of MMA?
- whether you think I did a good job arguing my case in the essay?
- Do you believe MMA will ever become as accepted in the media as boxing?
If you want to skip the essay and just give me your thoughts on the sport then I'll forgive you!
The Misconceptions of Mixed Martial Arts
If you ask most people in the UK which sport is safer, Boxing or Mixed Martial Arts (also referred to as MMA), they would probably ask you what MMA is. If you instead mention the terms ‘cage fighting’ or ‘ultimate fighting’ most people will realise what you’re talking then launch into a bitter attack on the sport, labelling it such things as barbaric, while admitting they don’t have much knowledge of the sport. Ask again which is safer and they will probably look at you like your stupid for even comparing the two and almost always emphatically answer ‘boxing’, but as a long term fan of both sports I believe that the total opposite is true and that MMA is safer than boxing.
Many people believe that MMA involves two men being locked inside a cage with no-hold barred, no weight limits, and no time limits, with the only way a fight can end is one man standing victorious over another who is left bloodied, hurt, and brutally knocked unconscious. Many people will refer to the famous quote from former US Senator of Arizona and Presidential candidate John McCain branding MMA as ‘human cockfighting’ (During an interview on ‘Larry King Live’ on American television in October 1996). A report from the British Medical Association (BMA, Boxing, 2008) looking at the dangers of boxing referred to MMA as ‘...no-holds barred fighting events ..., which have the sole aim to cause physical harm and injury to an opponent until they are unable to continue; the primary goal being to knock the opponent unconscious’. If these people were to look back at the early events from ‘The Ultimate Fighting Championship’ or the early Vale Tudo events in Brazil they would see exactly that; a brutal, violent, bare knuckled brawl between two men with only three general rules (although they did change state to state); no eye gouging, no groin strikes, and no fish hooking (the insertion of fingers into nose, ear, mouth etc).
However, this is no-longer the case. MMA is now covered by an extensive set of rules brought in to protect the sportsmen involved, competitors train in a variety of different skills such as Kickboxing, Wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to protect themselves from the different positions they could be put in during a fight, and the sport is covered by a governing body who oversee these rules are enforced. Since these rules have been brought in large weight mis-matches have become a thing of the past, if a fight is deemed uncompetitive and one opponent has what is seen as a sizable advantage over another the fight will not be passed by the Governing body, if an opponent is seen as not intelligently defending themselves the referee will immediately stop the fight, whilst the cage is used to prevent the competitors from falling out the ring when grappling therefore increasing their safety.
These rules are a far cry from the world of boxing. Just recently (07.09.09) the UK’s own David Haye fought Russia’s Nicolai Valuev for the World Boxing Associations Heavyweight title. In that fight Haye stood a massive 9 inches shorter than his opponent and was outweighed by almost 8 stone, due to the fact boxing has no weight classes larger than heavyweight, a size difference that would never be allowed in MMA, showing MMA is safer than boxing.
It is common for a boxer to go 20 or 30 fights unbeaten due to his management booking him against weak opponents that they can easily beat to build up their reputation. Have a look at Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis, or even the great Muhammed Ali’s professional boxing records and you will see their early fights are littered with wins against boxers who barely won 50% of the fights they were involved in; people handpicked for them to knock down. Compare this to some of the most successful mixed martial artists such as Randy Couture, George St-Pierre, or Brock Lesnar and you can see nearly every fight they were involved in was competitive, both Lesnar and Couture were involved in fights for the heavyweight championship in their 4th professional bouts. Add to this the many different skills a competitor must master and the different ways a fight can be finished it is rare for even the very best MMA fighter to be unbeaten during their career. Skill in MMA is rewarded with competitive match-ups that challenge a fighter and push him to advance to the next level, whilst in boxing it is rewarded with a free ride against undeserving opponents who risk their lives competing in such miss-matches, showing again MMA is safer than boxing.
Furthermore, it is also very common for a boxer to be knocked down during a fight, sometimes repeatedly, and be allowed to get back up and take a ‘standing 8 count’ from the referee to compose himself. This can lead to severe trauma of the head as flash knockouts and concussions are common in these situations, but often the fighter is allowed to then continue and take more punishment, risking serious health problems in later life, and in severe cases death. Dr Luise Schmidt, researcher from the University of Pennsylvania's Centre for Neurodegenerative Disease Research, said
‘... brain injury can cause Boxer's Syndrome by activating mechanisms like the ones that cause tau lesions in Alzheimer's or Parkinson’s...it also suggests that a head injury can increase susceptibility to Alzheimer's later in life’. (Acta Neuropathologica Journal, 2001)
This does not happen in MMA. If a competitor cannot intelligently defend themselves the referee will immediately stop the fight, which means they are not allowed to get back up and be punished for a second or third time. Examples of this can be found at almost any MMA event and are a major reason the sport is safer than boxing.
The evidence of what severe head trauma can do is plain to see for us all watching boxing legends Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier being interviewed in the documentaries ‘Muhammad Ali: The Whole Story’ and ‘True Stories, Thriller In Manila’. Parkinsons has taken a heavy tole on Ali’s later life, whilst Frazier struggles to string together sentences without the help of those around him. Compare these figures to Randy Couture; a man who is 47 years old, a veteran of 27 fights, and still competes today at the highest level of MMA. In the documentary ‘UFC: Legends of the Octagon-Randy Couture’ he is seen answering questions eloquently and clearly with no apparent signs that his health has deteriorated due to anything else but age throughout his career; there is certainly no signs of Boxers Syndrome.
In boxing the main aim of a competitor is to hit your opponent in the face, with the aim of knocking them unconscious. Add to that the 14oz gloves that have proven to only add extra force to the impact and increase the risk of serious head injuries (Matser E. J. T et al, Physician and Sportsmedicine 28:1), that has been compared by the British Medical Association to ‘the effect of being hit by a 12lb padded, wooden mallet travelling at 20mph’ (BMA, Boxing, 2008). Yet in MMA the smaller 4oz gloves are often cited as a reason MMA is more dangerous. In reality the gloves were chosen because they are ‘designed to protect the hand but not large enough to improve the striking surface or weight of the punch’(Nevada State Athletic Commission Regulations, Chapter 467 – Unarmed Combat), whilst also increasing the difficulty to hit an opponent’s head, and also force a competitor to throw punches lighter due to the increased risk of hand injuries. The many different skills used also lower the amount of times a fighter is struck in the head, another reason MMA is safer than boxing.
Perhaps the most telling fact though is the sheer amount of deaths caused by boxing every year. The Journal of Combative Sport lists a total of 1732 deaths from boxing up to the year 2007, yet in MMA there have been only 2 recorded fatalities due to injuries suffered in the cage, and 1 of these was at an unsanctioned event in Russia. It’s a sad but true fact that boxing is a proven killer of professional and amateur athletes, yet MMA, with all its criticisms from the media over its dangers and brutality, has again proven its self to be safer than boxing.
At the beginning of this essay I wished to prove that MMA is safer than boxing and believe that the facts I’ve found back up this argument. That’s not to say MMA is not dangerous, far from it. Any full contact sport carries huge risks to all involved and each athlete is aware of those risks everytime they compete. However, I do feel it is a fair judgement that MMA is safer than boxing, and is perhaps best summed up by Dana White, president of the UFC and former pro-boxer and manager, when he said in an interview with NBC sports
‘...What's more violent than boxing? ...In the UFC you and I can fight, and I can beat you and win, and never punch you in the head once. We can go right to the ground, start grappling, and pull off a submission. It's not 25, 30 minutes of blows to the head non-stop.’
If you made it this far a big Thank You for reading! 
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) when Butterbean (weighing in at an astounding 398 pounds or 28.4 stone) fought former pro wrestler Sean O'Haire. 
