Is UFC sport?

agree. the writer assumes there's tactics in boxing but not UFC and skips straight past the fight itself to the point where one is being beaten up on the ground. Shamelessly superficial article. UFC fighters are amongst the most talented multi-skilled athletes around.

Sport- 1 "an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment" That's from the Oxford Dictionary- just in case anyone wanted/needed to know, because I hate to let provocative and/ or deliberately distorted assertions become accepted as any sort of truism, regardless of their ridiculous yet seemingly rational nature. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/sport

Relatively new ? C'mon mate, all aspects of what is now MMA have been around longer than probably any other sport you can think of given that combat sports developed from actually training for combat. Martial arts relatively new ? Boxing a new thing ? Wrestling ? Pretty sure that was in the first Olympics which was way before "footy" etc came along (whichever variety anyone may subscribe to) so lets get real, fighting as a "sport" has been practiced since mankind first got the idea of learning things that helped us survive. I get it, you don't like the idea of our fragile little ladies being anything other than that, fragile. Well wake up & smell the coffee mate, girls like being strong, they like being able to not only defend themselves, they like to have the ability to attack to when it suits them or is necessary (go to a Krav Maga class anywhere in the world & count how many women there are) & they like combat sports in general. Hitting someone on the ground when they're down, which to you appears to be unsporting & dangerous, but to the participants is an acknowledged part of what may happen when participating in organised events (ie doesn't happen in training which is where most of us actually 'do' MMA) . I get it, it looks like all the things that we don't want to see in our society, because king hits (coward punches being aptly named) etc happen & we get that. They (the professionals & elite amateurs) rely on the referee, training & an accepted risk of what they are getting themselves in to as being commensurate with the likelihood of actually being hurt (long or short term, permanently or temporarily). Coming back to your "article", (I'll stand by my comment that it is not an article but more of an unimformed brew room 'look what I saw on the news' conversation) well I did read it because it was on The Roar, which is my chosen place to read about sport comment, so I will read it & I will pass comment (after all, that's why they have this reply option). You raised the question, you framed the references, you put it out there that this type of activity was taking our supposedly advanced society backwards & whilst I would never be derogatory or rude to you personally, I believe that you make comment from an uninformed position & offer no opinion, nor raise any questions of real relevance to the sport itself, or it's place in our society. I've said it already & I'll state it clearly again, you are uncomfortable with the idea of women competing or partaking in combat sports or practice & actually being violent (whether it is in earnest or just for skill/satisfaction) & your misguided/misplaced morality has led you to believe that an activity which has been taken place since the dawn of humanity itself is somehow inhuman. I would put it to you that it is you who does not "like a bit of conversation" about your post & because you have postulated about something which you don't really know, you feel uncomfortable about being given other people's actual reality based opinions which are not in alignment with your own poorly conceived idea of what should be rather than what actually is happening in the world around you. You said it yourself, you don't like MMA. Next time just tell the people in your office etc, & no-one will care. Post an 'article' on The Roar, & be prepared for people to share their opinion with you.

Almost any Boxing knockout which comes as part of a combination (ie. most boxing knockouts) involve a flurry of punches connecting after the 'knock-out' blow. It would be easier to name examples where that *doesn't* happen in Boxing.

Wow. The ignorance shown in this article is mind-blowing.

australia isnt, dont confuse alarmist journos with the rest of us

^^^^^this

The thing is that, when these athletes choose to step into the cage, this is the risk they are willing to take. They know there is a possibility of getting injured and the extent of the injuries that they can receive. It's the same with boxing, you are stepping into the ring/cage with risk of injury, but it's the competitors choice I've seen more people permanently messed up from boxing, than Mixed Martial Arts. It's an unfair call to make calling professionals like Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm women Brawling, because they are so much more than just "brawlers" They are professional athletes, Ronda Rousey has competed in the Olympics and won a medal so to call her a brawler is very disrespectful. UFC is just as much a sport as boxing, except there is much more to think about in cage fighting, and there is so much strategy when it comes to MMA It is 100% a professional sport. I do Mixed Martial Arts myself, and I know for a fact there are many injuries that can occur while competing in this sport, but there's injuries in every sport you compete in wether it be a combat sport or not.

No UFC isn't a sport at all. You're completely correct. Mixed martial arts is. This has to be one of the poorest, uninformed articles I think I've read on this entire site. News Ltd beckons your skills Mr Beardan

If you like Boxing, your argument loses any credibility it might have had: the injuries in UFC aren't anywhere near those sustained in Boxing. Rousey will bounce back faster than Gerald McClellan did. Of course, your argument seems based around your pearl clutching hang-ups with women in Sport, so there wasn't much to lose.

Gerry Cooney vs. Ken Norton and Ray Mercer vs. Tommy Morrison are a couple of classic examples.

Not to mention that the vast majority of eggs found in the animal kingdom are far closer to being spherical as opposed to the prolate spheroid used in rugby/Australian rules.

This is even worse than your shambles yesterday. Perhaps it might be best to step away from your computer for a while.

I've seen a huge number of shots from Boxers to clearly unconscious falling opponents, which is no different than any late hit in MMA -- fight with all available tools until the ref steps in, or to look at it through the lens of ball sports; play to the whistle.

Is this what The Roar is coming to, water cooler conversations put up as articles ? i'd appreciate the author has a point of view but an article which consists primarily of I don't like seeing women fight & I don't like a certain aspect of the sport is pretty much going to get the response of well don't watch it then.

I agree in a way - except it's just not that simple a)Allowing a grounded opponent time to gather themselves would risk putting MMA into the position of boxing, in which clearly-concussed boxers fighting on is pretty much the norm (ruinous for brains). The MMA rules, if properly implemented may well be better for long-term brain health, something that is suggested by the latest evidence (see Bernick et al, the Professional Fighters’ Brain Health Study, BJSM 2015). b) Most times that someone's knocked down they pop right back up, so pressing the attack on the ground is necessary within the current rules. So unfortunately it's not an easy thing to stop. Referees need to be on the ball and stop fights as soon as necessary, but it's hard to be right every time. One thing as well, Bearden - from comments, you seem more annoyed about the appearance of the thing (women fighting) rather than the reality. As far as I know, there's no known logical reason at this point why women should not fight (or play contact sports or whatever), so can you explain that?

Un-Australian? Seriously? In the land of the drunken boofhead king-hitting someone into oblivion whilst stumbling home from the 'Cross or the Gold Coast? And that's your argument? Mate, at least in MMA, the ref steps in as soon as they can see the the K.O. Not much different to boxing, just on the ground. Ever watched Kickboxing, Muay Thai? Doubt it... becuase the rules are not too dissimilar from MMA in regards to ground and pound... it's not new...