Spot on that like mate.
I read an interesting article as well the other day. Here it is
MIXED MARTIAL ARTS’
DIRTY LITTLE SECRET
By William Dettloff
The sense is pervasive in boxing that mixed martial arts (MMA) will have some effect on the game. Depending probably on your temperament, you expect that effect to be either a siphoning of boxing’s audience, or, in the best case, the two will complement one another.
Much has been written about the demographics the two sports pull. Boxing’s audience is mostly graying, the audience for MMA considerably younger.
It stands to reason that the fans drawn in the largest numbers (in America at least) to MMA are those whose adolescence coincided with the advent of deliciously violent and realistic video games. Think Mortal Combat, which enabled players to, somewhat controversially at the time, reach into an opponent’s chest and pull out his heart.
The same generation (and its successor) has demonstrated a similar affinity for on-line videos of streetfights and such that one can find in various places all over the Internet. It’s the same audience in part that has made the guys from Jackass famous.
I’m not here to disparage that audience; many within it are boxing fans too. But those who prefer MMA to boxing, I believe, are drawn to the explosive brutality of the former over the somewhat softer, more controlled violence found in the latter. Indeed, one reader recently described MMA in an e-mail as “boxing on steroids.”
Here’s the dirty little secret: MMA in America is not more violent than boxing. It’s not more brutal. It’s not even close. The brutality that seems so compelling in MMA is largely an illusion.
I’m not saying it’s fake or scripted the way professional wrestling is. I’m saying that, compared to boxing, it’s almost benign. In terms of the damage it inflicts on its fighters, comparatively, it’s 18 holes on a May afternoon—wearing sun block.
It’s not possible, you say? Where did I ever hear such nonsense? From an unlikely source: people in the MMA industry.
In order to make the sport more palatable and less overtly “brutal” to state regulators and an initially resistant American commercial audience, its organizers have had to come clean about some of its upsides, which are counterintuitive: concussions are relatively rare. Deaths are unheard of. The option the fighters have of “tapping out”—without shame—prevents the breaking of bone, the tearing of muscle.
I’m not making this up. You can find it anywhere.
If a guy in an MMA match gets punched on the head 20 times it’s a lot. (And punches that get delivered while one guy is on his back are deceptive; typically they’re thrown completely without leverage.) A boxer in a fast-paced fight can get hit 20 or 30 times in a round. You do the math.
As far as I can tell, the appeal of MMA fights is they resemble a kind of streetfight. And that makes them seem less regulated, more dangerous than boxing matches. I get that. But it’s an illusion and the people that run the sport can’t disagree with.
I’m not sure that boxing’s greater brutality is something to crow about. It is what it is.
Of course, you can watch whichever one you want. Or you can watch both. We all should just be clear on what it is we’re watching.