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Proponents for MMA legislation need to step up their game and update their playbook
By Zach Arnold | September 8, 2010
KENNY RICE: “Bob Reilly is a very vocal opponent. Next week, we’ll have part two talking about the financial implications as they have found in Europe, they’ve found in Australia and all over the U.S. practically except for New York that MMA and specifically the UFC can bring to a state and a community.”
BAS RUTTEN: “I think it’s crazy. I did a lot of research on the guy and he puts like for instance he says gambling, prostitution, live executions, and MMA, he puts them all in the same sentence, it’s almost like propaganda. If he starts repeating this to people the whole time, they’re going to see it as something violent. I have no clue. The purpose of MMA is to hurt somebody? Ask Mike Tyson what was the purpose for him in boxing, what he does. We always defend ourselves by something that’s really just an 8 count, that is the most dangerous thing there is. Think about it, you know you get hit, you go down, you’re wobbly, your brain is telling your body I don’t want to do it any more, no, no, no, no, no, people pay money yet to watch it. Let’s give you 10 seconds, you’re good to go? Can you see this finger? You see that? Go, go, go! And they go again, they’re going to get knocked down again. This is constantly going. That is brain damage. In Mixed Martial Arts, if you’re on top on somebody on mount and we all saw it, if three clean punches come through before the guy gets knocked out, they’re going to pull him off. They stop the fight. I don’t get it. All the punches are directed to the head in boxing but boxing is OK. Even worse, they say wrestling is OK, somebody else said pro-wrestling, that’s OK. I said pro-wrestling is OK? It’s a bad examples for kids, Mixed Martial Arts, but pro-wrestling is not a bad example? Kids think that is real! That’s why you see guys jumping out of the window on top of somebody else, that kid dies or breaks his back, how many times did we hear that? Kids thinks it’s real. I say cause-and-effect, that’s what you see in Mixed Martial Arts. You hurt somebody, well he goes down so let’s not do that not on the street. I think it’s actually a good example.”
KENNY RICE: “Randy, what do you think about listening to Mr. Reilly?”
RANDY COUTURE: “Well, I just think it’s an uneducated view. He doesn’t understand our sport and I don’t think there’s anything violent about our sport. It’s a contact sport for sure and it’s not for everybody but it’s not about violence, it’s not… he’s obviously uneducated. He’s going back six years to citing PRIDE rules when PRIDE hasn’t existed for quite some time and certainly the rules for PRIDE were you a little more… contact-oriented when you could kick on the ground and a lot of those other things, but even that was relatively safe as combative sports go and sports in general so I think that, you know, we’ve got an education process in place here we’re trying to make these people see that we’re not crazy, we’re not dangerous, this is not violence, it’s a combative sport.”
As Eddie Goldman has pointed out in the past couple of months, the critics of Mixed Martial Arts have been updating their arguments recently and the proponents of MMA legislation are using the same playbook from five years ago. MMA is a violent sport and there’s no way to deny it. So, don’t deny it. That’s why you’re arguing for legislation of the sport in various states in the first place — because it is a dangerous sport.
Second, don’t assume that the loudest critics of MMA are ‘uneducated’ and that they will change their tune after listening to UFC give their sales pitch. Saying the same things you’ve been selling for the last decade and not addressing the current realities that face the sport is disappointing. Furthermore, as we’ve seen with states known for their regulation of Mixed Martial Arts, there’s plenty of scandals that take place (from inadequate drug testing to fighters fighting with staph infections).
As time goes on, the critics of the sport will sharpen their arguments due to having a body of evidence to make their case against allowing the sport to be active in areas like New York (despite whatever pro-financial growth arguments for implementing MMA legislation are made in the first place).
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Agreed. Also there’s plenty of bad refereeing calls that makes the sport look bad and could be used to counter the safety argument. Cris Cyborg vs. Jan Finney and Jorge Gurgel vs. KJ Noons ring any bells?
“MMA is a violent sport and there’s no way to deny it. So, don’t deny it”
Advocates cannot hide behind the violence of MMA if they expect to win this battle longterm.
The violence of MMA is number one reason it needs to be regulated. These athletes needed to be protected as much as possible by athletic commissions checks and balances (though far from perfect at this point something is better than nothing)
While I don’t necessarily disagree with your overarching point, the anti-MMA guy WAS uneducated. He was relying on PRIDE FC rules to discredit MMA when in America the unified rules prohibit kicks and knees to a downed opponent. And have for several years.
Also, his argument was disingenuous. MMA is too violent but the NFL is okay because it’s “trying” to be safer. People have recently been paralyzed as a result of playing in the NFL (Kevin Everett) guys frequently break bones and play with them, they’re finding that older players have brain damage. And every time I turn on ESPN they’re talking about the Saints defense taking shots at Bret Favre. As a result of the Vikings last playoff game Favre had to have surgery on his ankle and almost did not come back to the NFL. And it’s not like the NFL has ever capitalized on the violent nature of the sport with “greatest hits” videos or anything. But yeah, since they’re trying (it’s been a few years since anyone was paralyzed!) the NFL is totally okay.
The contention that going to the ground makes MMA more dangerous is also spurious. First, the strikes from the ground don’t usually have the same force as when a fighter puts his entire body behind it as he does when he hits a power punch standing. Second, it provides fighters with an opportunity to grapple and utilize submissions as opposed to pummeling one another. Finally, it’s obviously much safer than utilizing a standing 8 count in which a fighter gets KO’d, recovers and then takes even more punishment to the head. The fact that some fighters have been doing MMA for some 15 years now and don’t have the obvious brain damage that some boxers and former NFL ought to aptly demonstrates.
If the guy interviewed on inside MMA is the best opponent of MMA, I don’t think the future of it being sanctioned is in great jeopardy.
What is the goal in boxing? A KO. That is the highest goal in MMA. I’m confused why a KO in boxing is somehow safer than a KO in MMA? Otherwise, MMA is much safer not only statistically, but logically as well. This anti-MMA guy must have been picked last in all sports in highschool and now he’s taking his revenge.
In much more interesting news, I can’t believe the UFC cut Duffee. Just stupid. How many good HWs are there? Kid is young, looks like a million bucks, and is a pretty good fighter already.
… and apparently a giant pain in the ass.
Guys like Tito, Rampage, & Couture can get away with being a pain in the ass because they put butts in seats and sell PPVs (or used to). Duffee is still at the stage in his career where he is a replaceable commodity, and when replaceable commodities rock the boat, they get chucked overboard.
“I don’t think there’s anything violent about our sport.”
Wrestler always say Its not a violent sport, “its just a job”.
This “job’s” employees however, are paid to create pain and injury in a violent manner without exception.
No different from your average mugger making money by hitting people.
Thanks for making this point. I get so frustrated when I see or hear MMA writers and fans bashing non-believers not realising they sound like the idiots. There are two sides of the arguement. And a lot of MMA’s critics (a large minority) also object to boxing on the medical evidence so please stop beating that to death.
Additionally people in the MMA mdeia bash mainstream writers for doing opinion pieces where they attend MMA events and point out (acurately I hasten to add) things they don’t like. That plain misunderstands the tradition of criticism of sports, arts and spectacules.
I’ll point out in the past, even Bob Reilly had a problem with pro boxing… or rather, with people’s desire for violence in it (hint hint).
JUST BLEED!!!
If people want the bob reilly’s more than the MMA, let them have it.
Why would you try to force nice things on people?
They’ll shrivel and die eventually by their own hubris without you lifting a finger.
Bas gets really out there, “ufc type violence is good example for kids, because its real. wrestling violence not good for kids its fake” “Kids thinks it’s real.”
SO a kid who knows the ufc is real has no desire to emulate ktfo’ing someone?
What about a ufc video game is that also better than a wrestling video game because its “real” or is it just another product that your employer is selling that Bas is pitching?
Bas along with Randy and other who state its not violent come off as uneducated brain dead company shills, similar to the brain dead shills that work in media.
So Bas is a Zuffa company shill? Never heard that one.
He shills “ufc type violence” in general and ambassadors to the sport of mma such as Bas, Randy, and Severn state “it’s non violent” well how’d they get those broken noses and scars?
Correct me if i’m wrong, but didn’t Randy get his arm broke when some guy was trying to kick his head in?
I guess “Oh its just little punches to get the guy to move” and Randys arm broke on accident is good enough explanation for me.
Bas was talking about the over-the-top ‘extreme’ prowrestling where kids body-slam and piledriver their friends off rooftops and through car windscreens, often permanently paralysing themselves.