We live in a world where a controversy lies just around every corner. Welcome to a controversy that’s been spanning 20 years, the world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) or commonly referred to Cage Fighting. Who could have imagined these two words not causing controversy, right? Nobody can argue that the label implies a barbarically violent the sport. The reality is mixed martial arts happens to be one of the safest sports in its genre of Contact Sports because of strict safety standards.
In 1993 an idea was born; the idea was to figure out what the most effective form of martial arts was. This idea was called the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). It was a tournament in which fighters from various disciplines would face each other in an octagon shaped ring with a fence around it, which is referred to as the cage. There was no time limit and the only rule was in order to win you must knock out your opponent or he must submit; this might seem familiar due to the Hollywood film “Fight Club” which involved a group of individuals competing in no holds barred bare knuckle fights. After this event, there were many people who began a campaign to ban mixed martial arts. Senator John McCain was one of the most vocal lawmakers, even referring to the sport as “human cockfighting” (Plotz).
While Senator McCain’s analogy was directed at his audience’s pathos and was effective in most cases it was based solely on ideological similarities and not fact. Examining the term “human cockfighting”, the general consensus is that cockfighting is cruel and inhumane. The fallacy of this label from Senator McCain is that the gamecocks did not have a choice in their fate because cockfighting involves owners placing two gamecocks in a pit causing them to fi...
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...of an art is an “occupation requiring knowledge and skill” (Merriam-Webster, Incorporated). On February 4th, 2014 Senator John McCain was giving a speech on Traumatic Brain Injuries in today’s sports and he was quoted saying “that even though he was against MMA in the beginning that today he would watch the sport because of the safety measures in place” (Fightland). That is quite amazing coming from the man who spent so many years trying to ban the sport.
There will always be opposition to the sport of mixed martial arts. The respect among athletes in mixed martial arts combined with the strict safety standards only shows the values from within the sport. While it did have a rocky start mixed martial arts has become one of the safest sports in the United States. Even a diamond starts as a dirty piece of coal, but over time it changes into a beautiful work of art.
With that being said, we begin to notice the comparison between both dogfighting and football. This was shown by using a system called “HITS, in which six sensors are placed inside the helmet of every player on the field, measuring the force and location of every blow he receives to the head” (Gladwell 56). The HITS system helped to conclude that practice can be just as dangerous as the games. With this being said, football is an overall reckless style of play that can continually cause brain injury. Not just football but both of these high intensity sports are viewed as damaging to one 's body both physically and mentally. Because of this, if people consider dogfighting to be unjust, illegal, and abusive then they should believe football to have the same damaging effects. Unfortunately, there is such a high demand for football, because of all the money it brings. Because of this, scientist and doctors will ignore the realistic facts and continue to allow people to participate in this
Original Production and ESPN films created "Shadowboxing: The Journey of the African-American Boxer” in 1999. This incredible documentary shows us how African American fighters broke
viewed in different lights. To some, the fights represent the risk of gambling and the
Have you ever wondered, “What is the difference between MMA and boxing?” Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fights originated as hand-to-hand combat performed as a sport called Pankration from the greek words Pan and Kratas, meaning “all powers” (Shamrock). Often a practitioner of one of the skill groups in martial arts challenged a practitioner of a different skill for ultimate bragging rights (Shamrock). In 393C.E. Roman emperor Theodosius the first banned the Olympic games,spelling the end of Pankration as a popular sport (Shamrock). This style of fighting later resurfaced in the twentieth century in Brazil via a combat sport known as vale tudo”,anything goes” (“Encyclopedia Britannica”). MMA
When someone thinks of the sport of ice hockey, one of the first things they think of is the fact that fighting is a common occurrence in it. It is almost a guarantee that if you ask someone who is not an avid fan of the sport what their favorite element is, they will say something about the fights. A commonly heard and repeated quote is “I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out.” However, over the past few years the question of whether or not this component should still be allowed in the game has been a cause for argument and controversy. There are suggested pros and cons for what impact banning fighting from the sport of hockey might have, but for now nothing has been done to change the rules and regulations. The question to look at is, how has fighting in hockey evolved throughout history to get us where we are today, and should it remain in the game because of its history? Or should it be banned because of its history?
Boxing in the early and mid-twentieth century had an appeal that captured the eyes and ears of millions of Americans. Championship fights and popular fighters were on national television and in newspaper headlines. At the time, boxing was relevant in the American sports world. However, over the past 30 years, boxing has regressed and lost its popularity. Spectacles like the graceful Muhammad Ali and the hard-hitting Mike Tyson are gone and have been replaced by lackluster fighters and greedy fight promoters who only care about their profit cut. On top of that, an increasing pile of evidence is starting to show more clearly the dangers of repeated head trauma and how corrupt the business of boxing has become. Lastly, boxing is pressured by the rapidly growing sport, mixed martial arts (MMA), because of its safer nature and a strong corporate leader. These causes combined will finally cause boxing to die as a sport in America unless serious steps are taken to reform the sport.
When we talk about violence in athletics, we are referring to any form of physical act that is committed by or against the athletes at the time of athletic events. These acts go against the regulations of the athletics bodies that govern the sport. Such acts of violence in athletics involve both deliberate schemes to injure fellow athletes and actual harm or threats directed towards the athletes by the spectators. The act of engaging in violence by some athletes is an attempt to intimidate or injure the opponents. A number of players and coaches have for a number of years been accused of such plots as a way of trying to outdo their opponents. Many of such cases have been welcomed by strict legal measures such as bans from participating in a future sporting activities.
Coakley, J. J., & Donnelly, P. (2007). Violence in Sports . Sports in society: issues & controversies (9th ed., pp. 198-199). Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Calvin Inalsingh, the head of the World Boxing Association’s medical advisory committee, admits that “boxing is the only sport in which the objective is to render blows to the head and body of the opponent so as the cause the opponent to be incapacitated.” The whole point of boxing is to inflict brain damage and as more medical knowledge comes to light, many believe that boxing will banned sometime in the future. Many people believe that boxing is too unnecessarily dangerous, including medical experts.
Whether you are an avid spectator of football, hockey, basketball, or NASCAR, you have witnessed a fair amount of violence. In the 2013-2014 football season, at least five different college football players broke their leg, and hundreds of other players at the high school, college, and even professional level have injured a plethora of other body parts in a variety of methods. Hockey is considered one of the most violent sports in the world—the players have violent tendencies and generally release their anger on their opponents—and, unsurprisingly to its audience, results in many injuries. While basketball is not considered particularly violent, audiences are thrilled when they witness almost any sort of injury. Last year, University of Louisville guard Kevin Ware’s compound fracture broke through his skin, exposing his broken bone to everyone around him. Several people took videos of the incident and less than a year later, the video has nearly tw...
How do you market violence? Can the general public be persuaded to look at unarmed combat as a legitimate sport? Through the course of the paper, I will discuss all the aspects of the marketing mix, and how they are utilized by the mixed martial arts promotion The Ultimate Fighting Championship. I will also discuss the effect of their current marketing stratagem, and the impact to their booming business.
Muscular christianity pushes masculinity after some saw the feminization of our culture. This breeds danger in the ring, as it becomes the feminine thing to tap out of the fight. It’s not only muscular christianity that brings danger, it’s the attentiveness of the ringside doctors and referees. In the video “Death in the Ring (2014),” the video showcases Dennis Munson Jr's slow deterioration in his debut fight at the Eagles Club, but it also shows how the ringside doctor was on his phone, and how he deliberately kept the ambulance from coming for a while, as well as not administering oxygen. Even Munson’s coach was shown slapping Munson in the face before he collapsed. Overall, this shows the lack of safety in boxing, and the risk boxers take into their own
The whole point of violence in Fight Club, is for men to share and talk about their feelings. To take out the feelings that they have been holding inside and cannot share their feeling just by talking like women do. All the events that happened in Fight Club, Palahniuk was inspired by the events that surrounded him in his life. He showed in his novel that violence can be a good thing or a bad thing. That a fight is not necessarily a bad thing. The violence in fights can bring or separate people in many ways. Violence can come in different form; it can be physical, murder, disease, or some other way. The theme of violence was shown throughout Palahniuk’s life and throughout his novel Fight Club.
Through my advanced training in the martial art of tae kwon do, I have come to realize the numerous benefits that this sport has to offer. I have gained many things including knowledge of self-defense, excellent physical conditioning, and a refreshing outlook on life. The rewards are abundant, however they require an immense amount of effort to achieve. Each martial art is unique and has distinct contributions of its own. This is why it is difficult to hear people generalize they are all the same. What people do not realize is the enormous difference between the individual martial arts. Today, the two most popular martial arts in the world are karate and tae kwon do. On the outside, they both seem very similar, in actuality they are on opposite sides of the spectrum.
There are many theories to why there is so much violence in sports today and one of them is because the athletes today are able to get away with more when they are young. An example would be if a high profile high school athlete who had a scholarship to a big time school were to get in trouble maybe it would be hidden a lot more. Where as if another non-athlete had done the same thing there would be more of a price to pay. So from an early age these athletes learn that they are more important then other students or people. When they get to the college or pro level and someone tells them what to do they don't know how to handle it in the correct manor. Many professional athletes have been looked upon as a problem before they become pro because of certain violence problems they have had in the past. And in many cases it has hurt player in where they are drafted and the money that they make.