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Quote of the Day – Dogfighting and MMA
By Zach Arnold | December 11, 2007
From The Bennington Banner in Vermont:
We live in a culture that has long been desensitized to human-on-human violence. Just 10 years ago, mixed martial arts leagues were considered highly controversial, were illegal in most states and available to fans only on pay-per-view. Today, sanctioned leagues like UFC and Pride are regularly shown on basic cable, and Sam Vasquez’s death on Nov. 30, which was the result of injuries suffered in a mixed martial arts league called Renegades Extreme Fighting, failed to make headlines in most newspapers.
Dogfighting, however, is a relative newcomer in American violence, and garners a rubberneck reaction for offering a sheerly unique brand of the grotesque. Before Vick’s indictment, dogfighting wasn’t part of the vernacular in the northern United States. Cockfighting we had all heard of, but only as a street game for impoverished Mexicans. We deem rich Americans who would enter such a world to be sadistic.
Topics: Media, MMA, Zach Arnold | 7 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I think the author’s monocle fell out in righteous indignation while writing that. Everything in that article should be prefaced by “Rich Northeastern white people think…”
Yet another pathetic attempt to lump dogfighting, cockfighting and bare knuckle brawling in with sanctioned and organized MMA. These article writers are so full of crap they need to be flushed before sitting at a typewriter.
Also, they fail to mention that UFC at the time allowed hair pulling, groin striking, was bare-knuckle, had no weight classes, and was unregulated.
Kind of apples and oranges with today’s far safer UFC.
And considering the number of deaths in professional racing, the media can fuck off with their “OMG, Ultimate Fighting is dangerous and should be banned!” attitude.
I’ve never heard a single reporter scream about NASCAR being dangerous, and PLEASE – compare their body count to MMA.
Wow…
I actually used to live in Bennington, and all I’ll say is that this coming from the banner doesn’t surprise me in the least.
“…Before Vick’s indictment, dogfighting wasn’t part of the vernacular in the northern United States…”
“..Dogfighting, however, is a relative newcomer in American violence…”
This guy is just making things up or he is a total moron.
Who had never heard of dogfighting before Vick??? Vick’s case didn’t open my eyes to anything I didn’t already know. There is dog-fighting everywhere.
I think this guy is the only person in the world who had never heard of dogfighting, does he not know what a pitbull is either?
Wow, just pure ignorance.
The dog-fighting/MMA conflation comes off as pretty mild compared to…
“Cockfighting we had all heard of, but only as a street game for impoverished Mexicans. We deem rich Americans who would enter such a world to be sadistic.”
yeah, those dirty Mexican savages, not civilised like ‘us’…
WTF!
What exactly is the big controversy in this quote? Is MMA not violent? Yes it IS violent. Does he not specifically mention that MMA of today is sanctioned? Yes he does. Has society not been desensitized to violence? Yes it has and continues to be, and to not think that this has helped in getting MMA accepted equals ignorance in my book. Where exactly does he compare MMA to dogfighting? Seems to me like he’s using MMA and dogfighting as examples of two different levels of violence(which they are), not two examples of the same product.
The horrid bit is the one about Mexicans. Ridiculous to write something like that.