Like a lot of Australians, I’ve been aware, in a peripheral sense, of the Ultimate Fighting Championship for a long time.
With UFC 127 being held in Sydney, and newspapers like The Daily Telegraph suddenly devoting entire pages to the sport, mixed martial arts was pulled from the sides of my vision and placed into the centre-stage of my sporting consciousness.
With the NFL concluded for another season, the cricket failing to excite, and the domestic football codes yet to kick off, UFC 127 seemed to fill a short void in the sporting landscape.
In the days leading up to the event, mainstream newspapers featured interviews with names like George Sotiropoulos, Chris Lytle, and James Te-Huna. It worked well to build up awareness and anticipation for the event.
Personally, it’s taken a hold of me in a way that boxing never did, to the point where I’ve been considering muay thai and sambo as, if nothing else, worthy additions to my fitness regime.
However, since the Octagon was dismantled and removed from Acer Arena, the feeling of media commentators and the general public seems to have shifted.
The Telegraph printed an article in the front pages about their journalist’s experience at the event, and the unease and distaste with which she viewed it.
The letters section featured commentary from readers denouncing the sport as barbaric, comparing it to the bloodsports of Roman times, and complaining that it will inspire drunken punters to lead with their fists in Saturday night disagreements.
As one of the newest fans of this sport, I’m sure I’ll surprise some of you when I say I totally agree with them.
In terms of mainstream sport, the UFC is as close as we can get to the sacrificial days of the Colosseum. While football codes may make a point of the physicality between, say, a ball-runner and a defender, the impacts and violence are merely a sideshow to the ball sport on offer.
The UFC offers no such diversion. A fight is just that; a fight. The participants hit and abuse each other until one is unable to continue or until the fight is stopped. There’s a level of savagery there that doesn’t exist in any other sport today.
It’s presence is, for lack of a better word, refreshing.
As the AFL looks to sanitise the contact with rules outlawing front-on tackles, and the NFL looks for ways to protect players from big hits, the UFC’s approach is unapologetic.
And why shouldn’t it be?
Unlike the Roman gladiators, these men all step into the ring of their own accord. They’re all aware that they’ll be punched and kicked in the head, possibly while on the ground. In fact, they’ve spent years training for it.
The UFC’s original catchcry of ‘There Are No Rules’ has been lost to the introduction of certain measures to protect competitors; but the sport is still as brutal as possible.
(As an aside, with scientific studies now linking boxing and football related concussions to Parkinson’s disease and forms of dementia, shouldn’t we be more receptive to a type of sport that can occasionally be decided by comparatively docile wrestling techniques?)
As for those late-night heroes that Telegraph readers fear will try to emulate the athletes of the UFC – big deal. That may sound callous and uncaring of me, and I wish to stress that in no way do I condone bashings or street violence.
But if those writers cast their minds back far enough, they may be surprised to find that violence predates the formation of the UFC. In fact, some historians are now beginning to suspect that violence has been around long before ANY sport.
To imply that the meat-headed dropkick with two-dozen beers under his belt would resort to healthy debate to settle a difference of opinion if not for televised violence is ridiculous.
The late Hunter S. Thompson once referred to the NFL as “a frenzy of subhuman violence”. The phrase certainly doesn’t out him as a committed fan of the sport, which he was, spending his final years as an ESPN writer covering it.
But in addition to being a fan, he was also honest. Football is violent.
If he can refer to the most regulated team sport in the world in such a manner, fans of mixed martial arts need have no shame in saying the same about their code. It IS violent.
Why is that a bad thing?
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