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
viewed in different lights. To some, the fights represent the risk of gambling and the
mind. In a general sense, many view martial arts as a sport that involves hurting one another. On
The liberty of an individual in sport is the number one value that should be respected to make boxing morally adequate. Autonomy should be respected in sport because ones body should always have freedom from external control and influences. All arguments for paternalism can be explained in a justified way to prove that boxing is unethical and unsafe, but this does not mean that paternalism is the best way to bring about safety in boxing. If boxing were to be banned, violence would become more prevalent outside of sport, and proper boxing technique and skill would slowly disappear. Keeping boxing as a sport will create a safer environment for this type of activity to occur, and also create a fair ground for each sport that involves violence to stay available to athletes. Because boxing does involve violence, this does not imply that it is immoral to participate and that the freedom to participate should be taken away from athletes. Boxing provides a safe environment, a place to create a career, and is an institution for sporting entertainment. By allowing boxing as a sport to continue, this will create a safe and fair atmosphere with the freedom to allow all individuals to participate with proper
Coakley, J. J., & Donnelly, P. (2007). Violence in Sports . Sports in society: issues & controversies (9th ed., pp. 198-199). Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
A tradition is a set of customs and beliefs that is passed down from generation to generation that is embedded in the culture of a society. Many people take a tradition as something that has “always been” and tend to not question why such traditions have been put in place, or even if such traditions are moral. Many times people do not take the time to really evaluate their reasoning for following such beliefs, or take the time to decide if their reasoning is even valid. The Muay Thai fighting culture of Thailand is one in which the morality of its “traditions” should be brought into question. Women fighters who participate in the culture of Muay Thai are seen as second-class when compared to the male fighters who participate.
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...
Mixed Martial Arts is the most misunderstood, safest, and popular full contact sport in the
Both conditional and unconditional logistic regression models were used to assess risk factors for injury. Accord to the “Southern Medical Journal’s Result; overall incidence rate of injury was 17.1 per 100 boxer-matches, or 3.4 per 100 boxer-rounds.” (Lipsey) The Southern Medical Journal’s also reports that facial laceration accounted for 51% of all injuries, followed by hand injury (17%), eye injury (14%). and nose injury (5%). (McCoy) Professional boxing is associated with a risk ...
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.
The more dangerous vale-tudo-style bouts of the early UFCs had been made safer by adding rules, leading to the popular regulated form of MMA seen today. Initially endorsed as a competition with the with reference to finding the best martial arts for unarmed combat situations, contestants were pitted against each other with minimal rules. Later, fighters joined numerous martial arts into their style while promoters came up with additional rules aimed at increasing safety for competitors and to promote mainstream acceptance of the sport. The term gained fame when the website newfullcontact.com, then one of the prime covering the sport, hosted and reissued the article. Following these fluctuations, the sport has seen increased popularity with a pay-per-view business that rivals boxing and professional wrestling.
Two boxers circle the ring, while waiting for an opening to deliver a knockout to their opponent. The crowd goes wild, the viewers have paid a substantial amount of money to witness a man falling to the mat; unconscious. Boxing is a martial art and combat sport that often turns into permanent damage. The intention of boxing is to win by hurting one’s opponent with delivering blows to their body and sometimes knocking them unconscious. The euphemistic of boxing is a human blood sport. Although boxing is a popular and active sport, there are other sports who do not intentionally try and physically hurt their rivalry. Boxing should be more controlled as a sport because it encourages violence, causes head injuries, and is dangerous.
Boxing Should Not be Banned In recent years, there have been many campaigns to try and have boxing
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.