The Problem with MMA!

By: Master John Graden

"High Influence Teaching to make you a more influential and effective communicator."

For the past few months I’ve been sharing my excitement about the huge popularity of mixed martial arts.

For the first time in history, a martial sport is taking its place among the well-established mainstream sports. I am as excited about the potential of MMA as Paris Hilton in a house of mirrors. Indeed, this week’s Sports Illustrated cover story positions the Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather Jr. fight as “Boxing's Last Chance.”

The article states that one of the reasons for boxings’ huge decline in popularity is the “surprising emergence of mixed martial arts.” MMA appeals to a “younger market of 18 – 34 year olds who are more interested in a leg sweep than a left hook.” Boxing, according to the article, is being viewed more and more as an old person’s sport, a sport of the past.

The L.A. Times has a number of articles also referring to the end of boxing and the explosion of MMA. Also in the Times, the first time that I can ever recall, an article referred to martial arts as being far more organized than boxing. You know the world is shifting when a mainstream article in a major publication sees martial arts as organized.

However, at a time when the sport is getting more attention than ever, there are a couple of key pieces of the pie missing. MMA lacks personalities and seems to be attaching itself to a lower class population. Many of the fighters even lack “likeability.” In the past week, I’ve watched The Ultimate Fighter, UFC Unleashed, Bogdog, and IFL fight cards. All had top-notch production value and huge build up for each fight and fighter.

However, once the bell rang, it was just another fight between two tattoos that don’t interest me as a person and I wouldn’t let my daughter date if I had one.

I have rarely watched an MMA card and actually rooted for one fighter over another because I liked the fighter with the exception of Frank Shamrock or Carlos Newton. Frank, in my eyes, is the best “face of the sport” we have. Regrettably, he along with the gentle giant Dan Severn, who is also a first class guy, may have come along about a decade too early. Forrest Griffin seems like a genuinely nice guy, but there is something a little Forrest Gump about Forrest Griffin, though I am not counting him out. The guy is a warrior and that’s important, but not enough. MMA doesn’t lack warriors. It lacks articulate leaders who can create interest.

What the sport needs is a Magic Johnson, Sugar Ray Leonard or Muhammad Ali. We need someone with a high level of skill, but also the charisma, class, and articulation to help the uninitiated to understand that martial arts, at its highest level, is about self-development.

Stars like this bring attention to the sport. People who would never watch golf tune in when Tiger Woods is playing.

I am a Tito Ortiz fan, and he doesn’t lack charisma or skill and by all indications is a good guy. But, he plays the bad boy image in a cellblock full of bad boys. He’s the best of the bad, and that part of the sport is wearing thin on this fan and will be hard for mainstream sports fans to swallow. How many dads are going to say, “Son, if you drop out of school and fight in the streets, you can be just like those MMA guys. Heck, MMA might even keep you out of prison. I’d be so proud.”

I’ve never missed an episode of “The Ultimate Fighter,” But, watching how these guys conduct themselves doesn’t’ make me proud to be a martial artist. I actually hope people don’t watch this show sometimes. When guys are peeing in each others’ beds and ready to street fight each other for not washing their dishes, as a martial artist, that’s embarrassing. The current crop this season is particularly disgusting. There is nothing like seeing Jens Pulver, the coach of a team, wear his baseball like a gangster.

Young, impressionable men are watching this and starting to role model these guys and that’s sad. Would you want your son emulating Mike Tyson?

Some people say MMA is the best style because it only uses what works. Well, what works is also respect and courtesy. Your fight career may last ten years, but the benefits of martial arts will last a lifetime.

In my eyes, MMA has discarded the long-term mental benefits of the martial arts for the short-term tap out. It makes no sense to join an MMA club to become a thug. Certainly, that’s not the case for all MMA students, instructors and fighters. There are many good MMA schools teaching respect and personal development. But the street thug with more tattoos than teeth is the image the sport is portraying to the world and in the current world image is everything.

One of the biggest complaints about MMA from the mainstream media is that it’s like human cockfighting. That’s a hard argument to fight when the sports most visible stars act like animals.

The sport needs to clean up the foul language and the street thug look. The president of the UFC, Dana White, who is clearly a sharp guy, might want to take a lesson from the veterans of other major sports. You never see commissioners’ Paul Tagliabue (Former NFL), David Stern (NBA), or Bud Selig (MLB) cussing on national TV like a 13-year old trying to act cool. Even the lowest of the low, boxing promoter Don King speaks with more class than White.

There is a tone of arrogance and disrespect when the leader of our sport speaks to us with that kind of language. What other high profile sports commissioner has to be bleeped out every other sentence? Last week, in berating a fighter for not making weight Dana White actually said something about, “You’re not going to do that to the f****** fans.” I was more than a little insulted. I’m one of those fans and I don’t appreciate being called that. Not all fans of MMA are from the streets.

I understand that part of the appeal is the edginess of the sport and that’s fine. But I’m concerned that MMA is going be cited as part of the problem of the overall coarsening of society when so many of us have worked hard to make martial arts part of the solution.

I know that it’s not the UFC’s job to create a better image for martial arts, but for its own good, setting a higher standard of conduct couldn’t hurt.

MMA is a rough, nasty sport, but so are football and rugby. There are plenty of guys from the streets in other mainstream sports, but most of them use the sport to elevate themselves and their family to a better place. It’s hard for me to say this, but even our distant cousin boxing has more class than MMA is showing right now.

These are critical times for MMA. I hope they take this newfound attention with responsibility and a long-term approach that will secure its position in mainstream sports and elevate martial arts as a great activity for personal and physical development.
 

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By: Master John Graden

"High Influence Teaching to make you a more influential and effective communicator."