Issue 032

December 2007

So here we are, it’s 2007, nearly 15 years since the first UFC. MMA is fast becoming the world’s number one full contact combat sport. Live events are selling out all over and pay per view sales are hitting ever increasing highs. MMA is mainstream, is it not?

Those of you who were around ‘back in the day’ will remember the good old days when there were hardly any rules, and fighters would turn up in judo gis or wearing a single boxing glove [Art Jimmerson, UFC1]. Over the years we’ve added more and more restrictions on what a fighter can and cannot do, as well as the introduction of time limits, weight classes and specialised gloves to protect their hands. Gone are the days of the crazy Japanese promoting events where fighters could soccer kick a downed opponent to the head, or a 400lb guy would fight a 155lb guy. So what’s next?

You could say that what has happened over the years is that the rules of MMA have evolved to make the sport as entertaining as possible, yet as safe as possible for the competing athletes. To a large degree this is what has happened, you could argue that some of the ‘purity’ has been lost over this short time frame and that MMA has been, dare I say it, diluted?

One thing we must bear in mind is that if we are exposed to something over a period of time, we will become desensitised to it. I have been involved with so much fighting and ‘violence’ over the years that seeing it in just about any form does not intimidate or disturb me hardly at all (as long as it isn’t gratuitous or directed at the helpless).

Recently I viewed some recordings of the Rio Heroes show in Brazil. This is an event that markets itself as being true ‘Vale Tudo’ [Anything Goes] with bare knuckles and no rules; ‘Real’ cage fighting. They do have what they call the ‘rules of honour’. This code means fighters refrain from hitting the groin, gouging eyes, and hair pulling is extremely frowned upon and very dishonourable. Now I have to admit that I quite like watching this stuff. It really is back to basics. Two guys having a good old fashioned tear up, but it isn’t MMA.

I’ve been supporting MMA for years now, and I’ve seen the rules evolve into what is generally accepted as the sport of mixed martial arts. I’ve listened to people telling me how barbaric it is on one side, and others who say that the sport has lost its purity and is not a real fight any more and we should have fewer restrictions. We should look at this in a mature and sensible way though. We must think about public perception of the sport and the consequences of a competitor being seriously hurt during an event. Just as in life, we need to do what we need to do, not what we want to do.

I have wondered recently whether the next step in MMA’s evolution (now that huge numbers of people are accepting it) is to take a little step backwards. Now that people see it for what it truly is, lets maybe take away some of the restrictions we’ve imposed on the fighters. Maybe we should start allowing knees to the head on the ground again, or head butts and stomps – it could make it all even more exciting than it already is. Maybe we could even go the way of the Rio Heroes show in Brazil and just have ‘rules of honour’ and nothing else.

But then I put my sensible head back on and remember just how far MMA has come and how selfish it would be for anyone to jeopardise the progress that has been made by people who put their money behind the sport in the first place. This Rio Heroes event will create a great deal of interest simply because of it’s controversial approach to MMA fighting, but I do hope that all the do-gooders and haters realise that it is not the sport that the major promotions and players have worked so hard to promote.

So will MMA evolve any more? Will it be diluted further or will some of the restrictions be lifted to make it even more ‘real’? I think the majority of you will agree that MMA is doing pretty well just as it is so it’s probably best to leave it alone. There may be the odd bit of fine tuning still to do, but this phenomenal product has shaped up very nicely and like my mum always says, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’.