Your take on Ultimate Fighting

[Corel]

It might not appear so obvious, but what you see in MMA requires a high definition of skill and training.

Especially within the grappling. In fact the grappling I would say is the most technical aspect, although it might not appear like they're doing much than "Wailing on the opponents head" they are both constantly thinking about mount positioning, reverses, shrimping, counters, potential locks or chokes, potential counters to counters etc. Funnily enough many people find this part the most boring part of it, which I understand because it's something I think you can only really appreciate once you try it yourself and see how hard it is.

Originally Posted by Bells

Even Boxing (which i'm not really a fan of) has a silver lining. A Control, a "Sportsmanship" aura to it... and even though it's just two guys beating each other, there is still the sense that the goal is to simply outmatch the performance of your opponent.

Boxing is whole big on the smack talking thing too, unless you are defying Sportsmanship as something different.

Originally Posted by Bells

Ultimate Fighting... just... doesn't give me that Feeling. It's people beating the crap out of each other for no god damn reason. The goal is not to outmatch our out-skill or out-perform your foe, it's to pummel each other until someone crosses the line where it would be too inhuman to beat him any further.

I would disagree with this and say Boxing is a worst perpetrator than MMA when it comes to pummelling; in MMA the referee will stop the match once it becomes too dangerous for either participant, and this tends happens pretty quickly. Compare this to Boxing, which can require going much longer periods of times getting repeatedly hit in the head.

Not only have you got the grappling as mentioned above, you're got to mix in clinch work and striking ranges. Fighters tend to favour one over the other, and have a game plan.

It's actually evolved quite a bit, if anyone remembers the earlier ones where a 180lb Gracies came in and tied people in knots (This was before weight divisions) it showed the world that if you wanted to be successful in the ring a good ground game is needed. What we've got today are strikers who learn how to grapple so they can defend against it. Also there are now more rules which you can see here.

Originally Posted by Bells

And yeah yeah i know all about the "Oh, but their training is insane!" well... as far as i care, training doesn't make the sport. In any sport there will always be that one guy that pushes the limit to be the best, it's only natural for the others to follow suit if they want to stay competitive. Just look at Tiger Wood's training for an example... beyond anything i would ever imagine.

I also know all too well about how this sport just feeds our basic instincts as humans and men... i just think we don't need to indulge in any sports that require one human being to make another one bleed on purpose as a means to a goal. It's just unnecessary, actually, irrelevant.

Mm, what about sports that don't necessarily require to destroy your opponent but in some way encourage or is part of the game? Australian Football, Judo, Union, Ice Hockey, American Football are all games with set rules with a goal of scoring more points, however they all carry a risk of injury.

I'm not saying that as a counter point, but just curious to your opinions on those sports.

MMA might appear to be just people "pummelling each other" but I would disagree with this. If you can you should take some classes and see for yourself how technical it really is.

Personal opinion: I enjoy combat sports mostly because of the technical prowess more so than the actual damage to another human being.

Edit: You should just go over to a site like Bullshido.net instead and read some of the articles they've got.

Edit Edit: We could debate what definition of a sport really is, whether it's defeating the opposition or a scoring system. If it carries a degree of violence make it any less of a sport?