In defence of mixed martial arts

In the days leading up to and the days following Ronda Rousey’s shocking defeat to Holly Holm at UFC 193, I have seen numerous articles criticising the sport of mixed martial arts, labelling it as savage and brutal.

In response to this criticism I feel it should be highlighted that MMA is not everyone’s cup of tea. That’s fine, not everyone has to like every single sport. In fact you’ll be hard pressed to find any sports fan that is a fan of every sport.

But it’s important to remember that ‘I don’t like it’ does not equate to ‘it’s not okay’.

Just because you don’t enjoy something doesn’t mean no one else is able to. The world would be a very boring place if only movies that every person in the world liked were created and aired in the cinemas.

Despite this, there are legitimate concerns surrounding UFC and the wider sport of MMA. Some of the arguments used by commentators over the past week have merit, some of them don’t.

One of the weakest arguments is that which claims that we don’t allow animals to fight so we shouldn’t allow humans to fight. The illegal activities such as cockfighting and dog fighting are highlighted as instances of this.

However there is one major difference between cockfighting and human fighting. The roosters used in cockfighting don’t have a choice. We put them in that ring for our enjoyment. The roosters don’t gain anything positive from the experience.

Humans choose to fight in an MMA ring; no one forced Rousey to step into the ring with Holm on Sunday. She could very easily have handed over her belt, stayed in Hollywood and focused on her burgeoning movie career. But she wanted to fight, and she was compensated accordingly. Before Sunday’s fight Rousey was earning over $100,000 per second she spent in the ring.

Not everyone enjoys watching people punch, kick and grapple and that is fine. But if two consenting adults choose to step into a ring in a highly regulated environment, that is their choice.

Speaking of regulations, that is another argument surrounding UFC. It is argued that MMA fights are a ruleless free-for-all. No-holds barred, anything goes. This could not be further from the truth.

The rules are extensive and clearly written. There are very specific rules governing fighters’ clothing, hand wraps and gloves. There are 31 specific holds and shots that are banned. These include head butting – an offence that has seen rugby league players go unpunished – eye gouging, hair pulling – an act completely legal in American Football – and faking injuries, a favourite hobby of soccer players.

One of the aspects of Sunday’s fight that particularly distressed viewers was the fact that Holm continued to beat on Rousey after she knocked her down with the initial kick. This was also seen in Mark Hunt’s victory over Antonio Silva. It was a clear act of brutality and would not be allowed in any other sport.

Let’s start by saying that kicking, kneeing or stomping on the head of a grounded opponent is strictly prohibited.

Plenty of criticism has come the way of referee Herb Dean who allowed Holm to land three strikes to Rousey’s head while she lay prone on the ground before ending the fight. However Dean is a highly respected referee and while all people are prone to make mistakes Dean can’t be criticised for making a mistake in this instance.

Perhaps he can be criticised for being slightly too slow, but his judgement in not stopping the fight as soon as Rousey hit the deck was the correct judgement.

Referees don’t stop the fight as soon as someone has been knocked down because there is a chance that the person will recover. The referee needs clear proof that the athlete is no longer able to defend him or herself before ending the fight.

There have been numerous instances in which a fighter looked down for the count before recovering and ultimately winning the fight. Dean knew that this was again possible on Sunday.

Before Sunday Rousey was widely viewed as the best fighter in the world. As an Olympic medallist in judo it was entirely possible that Rousey would recover and catch Holm in a grappling hold as she lay on the ground. Had she locked in the arm bar it would have been all over.

Rousey, and all fighters, deserved that chance to fight back. She got that chance and ultimately was unable to do so. As soon as that became clear Dean stepped in.

There have been numerous studies evaluating the safety of the sport of MMA, many of which compared MMA to boxing. Researchers from the University of Toronto have found that more professional MMA fights end in knockout or technical knockout than boxing fights.

They also found that MMA fights that end in a knockout or TKO tend to end with a flurry of punches in the last 30 seconds. This is less common in boxing. The University of Toronto researchers did not, however, examine the relationship between fight outcome and injury.

The counterargument to the above research is that boxing involves repeated bludgeoning to the head. That is the entirety of the sport, punches delivered to the chest, stomach and head. By their very nature MMA fights involve more than just punching. They involve numerous different martial art holds and submission manoeuvres.

It is largely for this reason that numerous studies, including research from the University of Alberta, found that boxers are more likely to suffer concussions or serious eye injuries than MMA fighters. This is not to say that MMA fights are safe, of course there is some inherent degree of danger involved in the sport. But with respect to concussions, the sport is a safer alternative to boxing, yet is treated as boxing’s Neanderthal cousin by the wider public.

The UFC has come under significant criticism for causing concussions, but like boxing it has a far stricter concussion protocol than any team sport around the world. If a fighter is diagnosed with a concussion they are automatically suspended for 90 days. No questions asked, no exceptions.

Rugby league has only started getting serious about concussions in the past two years and it’s still common for players to return to play within a week, if they are clear of any symptoms and pass their baseline concussion test. Given the nature of the sport, the UFC has a responsibility to ensure that their fighters are treated with the utmost care if they do suffer a concussion.

The 90-day rule does this, unlike plenty of other sports around the world.

One of the most common claims I’ve heard about MMA is that it spawns street thuggery. That the rise in coward punches and king hits was fuelled by the rise in popularity of UFC. That young adult males were watching their heroes on television screens and want to replicate their actions. They want to punch people.

Unfortunately there is very little academic research on the topic and the research that exists is not definite. However, the likelihood that UFC has triggered the recent spate of coward punches in Sydney or contributed to the scourge that is domestic violence in Australia is quite low. There are just so many other factors that contribute to public violence that MMA is at most a small contributing factor and not the only cause if it is a cause.

The ABS reports that more than half of assaults in Australia are carried out by attackers under the influence of drugs or alcohol, so it seems like alcohol is far more of a contributing factor than the popularity of MMA.

MMA is a dangerous sport with a high potential for injury, so why would anyone volunteer to step into the octagon? The answer is because an individual combative sport is different to any other. It is a one-on-one battle, me against you; one of us walks out a winner, the other a loser. It is the ultimate test of character, there is no way out of that cage, you either dig in and fight or you get beat up.

Until you step inside a MMA cage or a boxing ring you can never fully understand what the athletes experience when they go face to face. It’s not just a battle against your opponent, it’s a battle with yourself to push through the fatigue and continue to fight when you’re exhausted.

From an amateur perspective, there are multiple other reasons that people take up the sport. Firstly, it teaches combatants vital self-defence skills that may or may not come in handy some time throughout one’s life.

I hope to never find myself in a fight during my lifetime but the reality is that fights happen and that’s why, along with fight avoidance techniques, I was also taught basic fighting methods while at school. Many choose to take this a step further and pay for classes in order to develop their skills in the chance that they are in a fight.

Additionally, there are numerous physical, mental and intangible benefits from MMA training.

Clearly it is an effective form of fitness training and helps develop muscular strength and endurance. Mentally, MMA fights allow combatants to channel their energy into a controlled, sanctioned environment, thus providing them with an opportunity to de-stress and release all their pent-up anger and aggression.

Mark Hunt spoke last week about how MMA helped reform him from an angry young kid looking for fights on the streets into a more rounded individual: “I’ve used mixed martial arts and martial arts as a way to get away from it.” Numerous studies confirm this belief.

Many fighters argue that by being on the receiving end of a punch to the face or a sidekick, they are less likely to inflict such damage on others in a non-fighting environment. They know the pain their victim will endure and don’t want anyone else to experience that.

Finally, like many other sports but with the effects magnified, MMA teaches athletes key skills necessary for life like patience, discipline and persistence. As we saw on Sunday Rousey did not have patience and she did not have discipline and she paid the price. Holm possessed patience, discipline and persistence and she came out on top.

MMA is a dangerous sport with potentially harmful implications for its combatants. However that does not make the combatants brutes. The sport is not a free-for-all and it is not akin to cockfighting.

Yes, it is not for everyone and that’s fine but we shouldn’t rush to blindly criticise at the first sight of blood. The sport deserves criticism, but it has to be nuanced in order to improve the sport.