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January 25, 2010
Nicole Pham
A clenched fist crashes upon a helpless bloody face as the crowd roars at the climax of their primal fervor. All necks crane towards the center of the ring as the triumphant winner breaks away from his unconscious opponent to take a celebratory lap around the mat. With cauliflower ears, a broken nose, cheeks bruised, and ears swollen, the fighter bears the marks of his sport- mixed martial arts.
Although mixed martial arts, or MMA, may bring a sense of pride and honor to its practitioners, there are critics of the sport that draw parallels of it to human cockfighting. They regard the fighters as puppets of financially-motivated promoters, like the United Fighting Championship, common known as UFC, or the rising Strikeforce organization. The widespread popularity of the sport can be seen throughout our own school campus. The logos of brands associated with mixed martial arts, like Tapout and Affliction, are stamped on T-shirts and jackets in macho designs that allude to the tough prestige of the sport. Fans often wear these shirts in support of their favorite fighters.
However, mothers everywhere would be horrified at the bouts on TV that their children may gather to watch with their friends. The limitations are quite laissez faire compared to boxing and traditional martial arts because of the mosaic nature of the sport. During the five three-minute rounds, audiences observe how fighters can senselessly hammer-fist an opponents head until the referee calls a technical knock out or the opponent “taps out”, i.e. gives up.
What baseless critics don’t realize, however, is the art of MMA. MMA is a relatively modern sport, rising from about a decade ago, that combines the techniques of other traditional practices. Fighters use elements of judo, Brazilian jiu jitsu, boxing, kickboxing and wrestling, among other sports, in their full-contact combat strategies. There are usually two approaches that a fighter can take to their training: either specializing in a specific traditional sport or becoming well-rounded with all combat forms.
“The majority of people who train [in the sport] don’t step into the cage,” said Jude Ledesma, one of the gym directors of the ModCom-MMA gyms in Fremont and Berkeley.
Ledesma has been training in different practices since childhood, like Jeet Kune Do, wrestling and Muay Thai boxing. He understands that much of the hype around MMA is because “people like to see competition at its most boiled-down form.”
He emphasizes, however, that like with any other sport, MMA is something that people choose for themselves to be a positive influence. The prime purpose of the sport is not to create a revenue-raking audience.
“People imitating this is not a good idea at all,“ said Ledesma.
Its rising popularity can be attributed to how fans have become more educated in the sport, but its practice remains a skill to be developed with trainers and classes, not friends and backyards brawls.
