The rise of MMA from maligned backwater freak show to multi-million dollar sports juggernaut over the last twenty years has been monumental and many within the sport hope its ride will continue until it is nothing less than the biggest sport in the world.
However in the immediate future the sport faces a potentially crippling image problem that will only become more and more prominent as it continues to grow in popularity.
Just two days ago yet another ‘mainstream’ sports writer, this time the Murdoch press’ Phil Rothfield, took MMA to task.
He labelled it “barbaric savagery”, saying it made him sick and calling for it to be banned in Australia.
And while Rothfield and his shrill brand of sensationalism was expertly dissected and earned worldwide scorn, the MMA community would be fools to dismiss his piece outright because there is just no dodging one plain point that he and many others have tried to hammer home: MMA looks bad.
And here lies the problem for the MMA community.
While it can do all the education it wants about how safe the sport actually is, to the unseasoned eye it looks like two men locked in a metal cage, beating each other bloody all to the cheers of a crowd baying for even more carnage.
To those in the know it is an image that doesn’t stack up.
While there is no doubt that MMA is dangerous, it is a heavy contact sport after all, the sport has tight regulations in place to protect its fighters and structures such as ‘The Cage’ actually help prevent injuries compared to a more civil looking boxing ring.
It even comes up trumps when compared to other high contact sports.
A 2006 John Hopkins University study which appeared in the Journal of Sports Science and Medicine found MMA fighters suffer far lower instances of traumatic brain injury compared to boxing.
These findings were backed up by a 2008 study by the British Journal of Sports Medicine.
Moving even more mainstream, if a player suffers a concussion in the NRL or AFL they can expect to sit out for maybe a week, however in the UFC after a concussion, fighters are regularly banned for months from even sparring let alone getting back in the cage.
Yet for all the skill in the sport, for all the regulations in the rule book, for all the safety the cage gives, for all the well informed cries of the fans, at times it does look exactly like “barbaric savagery”.
Compared to those other contact sports MMA just looks less regulated and far more dangerous.
And for the growth of the sport that is going to be a huge hurdle, particularly at the grassroots level; which is where the long term sustainable growth that truly makes a sport mainstream comes from.
Can you imagine schools offering ‘cage-fighting’ as an option for school sport or middle class mums and dads cheering on their kids first outing in ‘The Octagon’?
These scenes are normal for most sports but seem outlandish when played out with MMA.
But is there anything MMA could change to help its image?
The NRL banned the shoulder charge so anything is possible, however for better or worse it is unlikely any substantial progress will be made in the short to medium future.
UFC President Dana White is the lead Ostrich, burying his head in the sand, publicly slamming the aforementioned Rothfield article and (somewhat understandably) leaping to the defence of the sport he has raised up into a multi-million dollar franchise.
However if he, the UFC and the rest of the MMA community truly wants MMA to be the biggest sport in the world, there will come a time when we have to confront MMA’s violent image and adapt or perish.
DECI BELLS
Guest
I would say mma is not violent enough . And before you ridicule what I am saying note if people were actually fighting to the death than maybe it would not go down so well. Where there are restrictions on the violence it becomes like play fighting with only shades of the real thing so people can feast on it more comfortably. If they actually witnessed real violence than some of the "Fans" may not like seeing a man killed like they did in roman times. Its the play fighting which promotes violence but a real fight is never violent because you are always justified in your response that is trying to save your life or loved one. In Rome Christians protested the violence. But if you leave the violence as pretend violence no one ever gets tired of the charade. Thus the state of martial arts today DO PROMOTE Violence through mma. And this is only child's play compared to the roman coliseum. Maybe all that this proves is violence is wimpy. And fights to the death are real and DEADLY.
hemi
Guest
I started watching MMA after a visit to Brazil in 1998,i went to a Vale Tudo tournament and watched a young Wanderlei silva beat the crap out of Mike Van Arsdale,knocking him out with a soccer kick.from that day on I was hooked. watched every UFC event but wasn't quite the same as Vale Tudo,then I started watching pride fc,actually thought it was a lot better than the UFC.THE SILVA VS JACKSON matches were awesome as were his fights with sakuraba
Bob Anderson
Guest
I stopped watching when they added women and transvestites to the cards.
Jon
Guest
I agree mate. I played park rugby for years, and I copped plenty of punches, knees, kicks, elbows, stomps and rakes. Even got eye-gouged once. Most of the time it went completely unpunished. It is always safer at the pro level, because players are fitter, stronger, better trained, more disciplined and professional, and most importantly the refs are better, there are cameras watching everyone and everyone is held accountable for foul play. It's the exact reason the MMA must be fully regulated by the government. It's why MMA should be held in the octagon, which is designed for fighter's safety. The chain of the fence is covered in soft rubber fiber, the posts are padded, and the floor of the octagon is made of dense rubber foam to protect athletes. There are refs, doctors, medical checks, drug tests, cameras watching foul play, the athletes are top professionals at the peak of fitness. So its safer.
Johnno
Guest
Jon agreed. MMA at the elite level is safe. Reality it raises a good point, at pro level's it shows, when people are trained and know what there doing, plus with a proper system in place to suspend players heavily for foul play which then equals loss of income and livelihood, all those factors, the pros are far safer than the weekend hackers on the footy field. Suburban or amatuer footy, has always had a big dark side. Unfit players vs fit players, swinging arms, endless fights and foul play. Pro's who have little runs in amatuer comps for cameos have complained it being far more dangerous and loose than pro level. Swinging arms, broken noses, jaws, hits to the throat, serious injuries you name it, i wouldn't play amatuer contact sports not worth the risk.
Jon
Guest
There are far fewer deaths the more professional the level of rugby league and union, 100% correct. Just as there has never been a death or crippling injury in the UFC, it's also very rare at the top level of rugby. But that's just the top level. Outside that, many people have died. Many have been crippled. A 15 year old kid died this year in a rugby league game in country NSW. And I am aware that there have been deaths in many sports. I am also aware that deaths are rare, when you look at the number of people participating. And they become very rare the higher the level of professionalism. You are more likely to get killed in a car crash driving home from a game, than you are to be killed playing. Which is in fact the point. MMA is not more dangerous than rugby, soccer, motor sport or horse riding.
Johnno
Guest
Gareth Jones was a player in welsh 1st division not in the Rabo direct. Basically semi pro NSW/QLD cup or shute shield standard 3rd-Tier basically currie cup/ITM cup standard Leon Walker was playing a reserve grade game, not 1st grade Adam Walker didn't die during a training run, he died during a weights session in the gym, not a contact drill at training. Every year regular people die of heart attacks when going for a work out at the gym. So for me I put it down to 2, and none at the top 1st tier level eg Super rugby, Aviva premiership,Rabo direct etc. So 2 deaths in how many pro games or semi-pro games, and pro/ or semi-pro training sessions done since 1990. Almost zero out of the thousands of matches and hundreds of thousands of training runs done since 1990 around the World. Hardly alot Jon. Far more have died in pro motor racing, and about 2 or 3 in soccer to which is low, rugby union and league are safe games. Oh and these are 2 across 2 codes or sport since 1990, makes the statistic even tinier as thousands of games, and training sessions Jon. And as for the other bloke who sadly took his own life, people in all industries who suffer work related serious injuries eg on building sites, or truck drivers, some have taken there own life. Really Jon rugby league and rugby union at the proffessional level, when you break down the statistics is very very safe, for serious injuries and extremely rare deaths. Ever hear of Reggie Lewis of the Boston celtics Jon who died of a heart attack at a casual training session. He was in off-season trying to revive his NBA career and in an unofficial training session 20 years ago died. He had a long history of heart problems, not basketball related.
Jon
Guest
And outside the professional level there are many, many more.
Jon
Guest
Gareth Jones, Leon Walker, Adam Watene. Gareth Jones died of a spinal injury sustained in a ruck, Leon Walker died of a heart attack during a game, Adam Watene died during training, also a heart attack. Dan James was a young English rugby player who played for England juniors and was paralysed from the chest down during a scrum. He committed suicide soon after.
Johnno
Guest
Jon, name 1 rugby player killed at the proffessional level since 1990. Name 1. I can't. Soccer at the proffesional level has had far more deaths I could name at least 3 that have died on the soccer field since 1990, suffering heart attacks, or cardiac arrests.
Jon
Guest
You could apply exactly the same logic to rugby union. Hundreds and hundreds of rugby players have been paralyzed or killed. And rugby players absolutely deliberately hurt each other.
Calum
Guest
they already do mate for teams that have serious rugby programme. One professor told the school that the point of jiu jitsu was to help kids who were being bullied, not help the big boys become better at rugby.
Genghis
Guest
I can see high schools offering Jiu-Jitsu classes in future maybe even wrestling, they offer kick-boxing fittness classes at my white-collar workplace, times are changing
Pot Stirrer
Guest
Wether it will be mainstream or other dpends on how popular it is amongst the public. I think the DT with its sports journalists have lost all credibility so i dont believe anybody pays to much attention to what they say. Especially Dillfield. Personaly i dont think there is any stopping of MMA,
nickoldschool
Roar Guru
I love MMA and don't want the rules to change but its clear we are in the minority and it will never be a mainstream sport. I think the 'cage' aspect is what makes it look 'barbaric' for some although its mostly for fighters protection we use the cage rather than a ring. 10-15 years ago some of us could barely admit to their work colleagues or new gf that we were into MMA without fear of being labelled 'a weirdo" or get the violent lad tag. Things are slowly changing for the better.
peeeko
Roar Guru
You also have to consider how many people have ran onto a rugby field in that time period compared to entering the cage.
peeeko
Roar Guru
He's a big soccer (football) supporter! Who writes similar comments on rugby threads
Calum
Guest
hi Sam, great article and thanks for providing the links. I love boxing but 2 things absolutely kill it 1) the number of one sided fights. Now there are one sided fights in the UFC but they are not planned in the same way. In boxing, you have to have been unbeaten in about 25-30 fights before anyone takes you serioulsy, so there are loads of fights where an 'up and comer' (a kid with potential) will fight an 'oppenent' (someone rubbish) to start his career. 2) nobody makes the fight! a lot of the time they just hug each other and the refs just let it go. The UFC tell there guys to make the fight because they know that is what the fans want. If they don't come to fight - the UFC will just cut them and they can because of their marker postion. That leads me on to a nagging worry i have. When Dana White leaves, my prediciton is the UFC might start to struggle. My feel is that at the moment they have White (plus the fertittas) and that is perfect; knowledgable, passionate guys who are running the show and have things tuned the way they like them. Eventually, MMA is going to grow enough that one organisation will come up (perhaps the gap will open up after White's tenure) and I think we might start to see some of the problems that have blighted boxing. .... and whilst I don't want this to go into a 'top UFC fights of all time thread I feel it would be negligent to not mention Shogun vs Forest Griffin.
Damien
Roar Guru
LOL..Boxing as a 'Pure Sport'. I'm a fan of Boxing and a huge fan of MMA. The key to enjoying a MMA match is having a decent understanding of the ground game. The stand up is quite easy to figure out..
Damien
Roar Guru
Fair enough Robert, its not for you. I'm not sure what kind if success you'll have trying to censor it from any future children though..