UFC - "ANYBODY CAN HAVE A GO"

[Ian The Machine Freeman]

I have just finished reading abook titled "BARE FISTS" by Bob Mee. It is basicly a book all about bare knuckle
boxing or gypsie fights. It goes back to old time fighters as far as 1860. The book is also subtitled, 'A World Of Violence Where Only The Brutal Survive'.

Anyway, as you get to the last chapter of the book, there is our sport, ULTIMATE FIGHTING. Great I thought, a British authour giving the sport some positive coverage......... I was Wrong.

Here are some qoutes from the book :

"The logical extention of this unlicensed brawling is the Ultimate Fighting craze that has swept America. This is a combination of all codes and of none of them: a hotch-potch of skills brought from a variety of martial arts allied to a basic aggressive instinct that takes us back 300 years."

" Boxing with bare knuckles developed as an art form in the 18th century from one form of principle: that it should not be misused, and should adhere to clear principles of disipline. However, Ultimate fighting has demolished all of the traditional codes. Competitors go into the cage rather than a ring - intentionally symbolic, surely - to batter each other into either submission or unconciousness in the most violent way possible."

"I found the official website of the Ultimate fighting
Championship, which claimed to be the premier mixed martial arts event in the world. It talk of it's ring as a proving ground. The major news was of a tournament in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in March 2000 in which one Kevin 'The Monster' Randleman was billed to fight Pedro 'The Rock' Rizzo. Radleman and Rizzo were descibed as 'athletes', which somehow swithched the attention to thier physical fitness and not what they were about to do to each other."

"John Perretti is the matchmaker for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. If you are interested in fighting, click here. In other words, it's principle is that anybody can have a go."

"A catalogue claiming to extend to 800 pages was of the UFC Japan. The synopsis was remarkably diferent to the pre-fight cosmetic hype and concentrated, not on athletiism or skill, but on the extent of violence on offer and on the machismo of competitors. It boasted, 'skull cracking, back breaking action is guaranteed"

"Ultimate fighting: A fad that draws huge television ratings."

"Mark 'The Hammer' Coleman: one of the new generation and type of fighting star........"

Bob Mee talks of bloody bare knuckle street battles and ring fights but condones our sport as barbaric. The front cover even has a picture of a guy on 'The Mount' of another, which is purely Ultimate fighting and not Bare knuckle Boxing, so he uses our sport to sell his book, but slags us off.

If a bare knuckle fighter, who intention is purely to knock someone unconcious, has tried to slander our sport in his book, then what hope does the UK and other countries have of making our sport grow?

[Masala]

This is a fine example of the 'geek vs. geek " phenomena that takes place at some schools. Instead of the geeks teaming up to form their own little clique, one starts picking on the other in the hopes that he will not be percieved as a geek also. Of course to everyone else, they are both still geeks.

Mr. Mee wants to seperate his sport from ours, so everyone can see that he is not the geek that we are. He seeks to elevate his staus by diminishing ours.

Shame on him.

The general public sees bare knuckle boxing as being just as brutal as MMA, and by putting down MMA he doesn't make a case for his sport, but instead damages both...which is exactly how every geek vs. geek rivalry turns out.

What a geek.

[dan downard]

Yea,doesnt he realize we are ALL geeks?

[Evilution]

I always hate when people do that kind of crap. In boxing someone is garaunteed to get beat down, but I've seen lots of MMA fights that ended in submissions with nobody getting bloodied or even hurt. It's like, okay, if we add a bunch of dumb rules then it's civil but if you only have a handful of rules then it's barbaric. Puh-leeease.

[Fiery Ermine]

I think the deal is "If it's mine, it's civil, if it's yours, it's barbaric."

This attitude sucks, but it applies to a lot of people in a lot of areas besides martial arts. I had a girlfriend who was a gung-fu artist who would make fun of weightlifters. It's insane that people need to put down others in order to justify the things that they do.

Thanks to Ian for pointing out this book. It's probably an interesting, but it shows more about the author than I thinkk he intended.

FE.

[bobby_steeles]

this guy is ass backwards. the way way boxing is set up is that the great number of rules force both fighters to attempt to win using the most violent means possible. the ufc rules being less limited allow the fighters the ability of winning by using less violent methods, such as submissions, which are illegal in boxing.
as far as the "anyone can have a go" statement, maybe this guy came to this conclusion after watching the john hess/andy anderson fight. (heh, heh)
masala, you seem to speak from experience about those "geek wars"...

[Kodokan]

I'm ashamed of the people that consider MMA and bare knuckle boxing some form of martial arts. It's sad. It makes me realize how much the martial arts has been twisted and perverted. Martial arts is about self defence, it's about preventing a confrontation and only using your ability as a martial artist (or a fighter) if the situation becomes life or death. but people learn these brutal and violent techniques and they use them to show off. People actually consider someone getting their face beaten in as entertainment. you should all be ashamed of yourself.

[dan downard]

Thank you so much for your opinion.Why do you train at all?
Spend that time preaching peace and love,then you wont have people to defend against.
Now,you are going to tell me you train for self defence.
But what kind of defence could you have?How do you know it will work?Not the techniques,but for you?You must test them.How do you think the techniques you practice for self defence came about?Are all the people that thought up and tested those techniques a bunch of animals and they should be ashamed?You make no sence at all.
You sound like the target shooter who shoots at targets of animals,then bashes people for hunting.You do everything exept actually fight.A paper tiger who trains for his own ego and nothing else.I fear for the relative who thinks you may save them one day after believing you can perform your kata on a person wanting to harm you.Martial artists test themselves and refine their techniques so boys can learn them in a mcdojo and think they can do it too.Untill you actually test your skills against a resiting opponent,you are just learning.There is a big difference.Why wait untill a life or death situation to find out if what your learning is going to work?Now THATS CRAZY!

[Edited by dan downard on 01-18-2001 at 06:06 PM]

[BIG BIRD]

AMEN BROTHER DAN!

[keithws]

You're very courageous for pointing out the true spirit of Martial Arts. People on this forum have gone tooooo far in their thirst for BLOOD!!!!!!

You guys should be ashamed! I bet you're all a bunch of show offs like those mean UFC guys.

Kudokan, I look forward to your next post. Sensible people are hard to come by on this forum!

[bobby_steeles]

right on! and i bet you all like....naked women! yuck!!

[dan downard]

Your so right keiths.We take this way too seriously.The resistance training,the aliveness in training,all the conditioning,the seminars,the years of sweat and blood,the injuries,and the cost of a good school,could all be avoided if you just practice with your shadow in the privacy of your own living room.Just a little knowledge of kung fu kept
secret untill the moment of a life and death situation.Then whip it out and start using it to save the day.

[bob s]

fihgting is good because you get to see what is a good martial art and waht sucks so it its good to fight like the ufc

[Badger]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.........Blood!Blood! Blood!(voice of Animal on the Muppet Show)





-Badger

[Edited by Badger on 01-19-2001 at 12:50 PM]